Pathblazer
by Quesote
Summary: In an epic quest to clear a path for a mysterious liberator, Percy, Annnabeth, and Thalia are whisked away to the future to participate in the 73rd Annual Hunger Games.
1. Chapter 1

Percy was sitting on the beach, enjoying the day. The Ares cabin were in the Sword Arena owning everyone else, the Apollo kids were on the ball court, scoring three-pointers like it was no big deal, and the camp warship was battling with a gigantic sea monster. A normal day. Suddenly, there was a small _Crack!_, coupled with the smell of fish.

Percy turned, and saw his father, Poseidon, sitting next to him. "Hey, Dad," Percy grinned."What're you doing here?" Poseidon did not return the greeting. He took a deep breath, and began talking without preamble. "Percy, have you ever heard of the Hunger Games?""Sure," Percy replied. "Great book, but a little too much gore and drama, not enough humor, if you know what I mean.""Well," Poseidon sighed. "It's real." Percy felt his happy smile slide off.

"What do you mean, 'It's real'?" "It is a fate brought upon by Ouranos' rebirth, but that's not important." Poseidon looked at Percy with deadly serious eyes. "I will now give you two choices: Stay here at camp, safe, sound, and bored, or go into this future world, to the 73rd Hunger Games, clear a pathway for the liberator, and be our savior . . . again." Poseidon finished, and looked at Percy with his eyes a harsh green color.

"Uhhhmm, I pick option Two. But if I like, die or something, do I get another four lives, like in a video game?" "No" Poseidon said bluntly."If you die, then all is lost." "However," he continued, "If you defeat all opponents, then I will transport you back, and leave a phantom of you, so that everybody else will think that you are still there." Poseidon finished, and looked at Percy expectantly.

Percy thought for a long time, almost ten minutes. "Fine, I'll do it. But with one condition: I get to bring two companions." Poseidon blinked once. "Of course!" He said in a confused tone. "I would have been surprised if you hadn't said that. Who would you like to bring?" he added questioningly. "Let's see. . . Annabeth as my district partner, and. . . Thalia!" Percy grinned. Maybe this wouldn't be that bad after all. But then a horrible thought occurred to him. "What happens if one of them dies?" Poseidon thought for a moment. "Then they will return here, but retaining all memories, and they will be unable to assist you." Percy breathed a sigh of relief."Anyway, I think that you chose wisely. You will need all the help you can get." For the first time, Poseidon grinned. "Your mentor will be a man called Brunner, and he-" "You mean as in _?_" Percy asked, dumbfounded. Again, Poseidon grinned."Yes, Chiron managed to survive by winning the 45th Hunger Games. Now, your two friends will recognize you, and I will ask Morpheus to give the Gamemakers the idea of letting your trio triumph. . ." He paused. "Those of you that survive, of course." Poseidon stopped and looked at Percy. "You will wake up with Riptide (For that period of time in the arena, your sword can kill mortals) in your pocket and your shield-watch on your wrist. You will also find that you still have the Curse of Achilles. The mortals will think that you are an exceptionally quick dodger. Good luck, my son, and pray that this works." He snapped his fingers and the world went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone, sorry I couldn't make an author note last time, I didn't know how. Anyway, enjoy my story! **

**P.S. Thank you, those three who reviewed. This is what makes writing a story worth it.**

**P.P.S. **__**I do not own PJO or HG**

When Percy woke up, he was standing in a plaza, surrounded by boys around his age. Percy looked down at his left wrist, and saw his shield/watch. But when he glanced at it from the corner of his eye, it disappeared. Percy guessed that the Mist made it invisible to mortals. He checked his pocket and found Riptide there. When he took it out and uncapped it, he saw his pen elongate into a 3 foot long Death Machine. But some other guys turned around, saw the sword in his hand and said "Dude, this isn't the time to be writing reminders on your hand." Percy guessed that in the Arena the celestial bronze would be able to kill mortals. He put Riptide away, and checked up on his final and most important magical property. He pinched his hand, hard enough to draw blood. No matter how hard he squeezed, nothing happened.

Percy, satisfied that his tools were in the proper places, looked up near what had to be the Justice Building, where the stage was. On the stage were five people. The first one was probably the Mayor, identified by his fine suit and calm and confident expression. He looked like a man who was in control. Then, there was a hyper looking woman with an ear-to-ear smile and a fluorescent green wig on. Next to her was a tall blond girl with grey eyes, with an expression that said "What the hell am I doing here?" Percy's heart skipped a beat, and then sped up._ Annabeth!_ He thought joyfully. And finally, a middle-aged looking man in a wheelchair and a wizened old woman with a kind (If scary) grin. He looked around 80 years old.

Percy jumped when Green-hair started talking. "Wehell, naw iht's tahm four the reapin of the bohoys by: Linnie Bauble!"* She spoke with what Percy could only call a mutated Southern accent. She called out in her weird voice while pulling out a piece of paper: "Perrrrrrrrcy… Jackson!" Percy knew it was time. He stood up and pushed stoically through the mass of boys. He heard a lot of "To bad Percy"s and a couple of "Bad luck, Jackson"s.

As he walked up onstage, Percy took pleasure in observing the expressions on his girlfriends face. At first, it was shocked, and then scared, then confused, and finally understanding, tempered by more than just a little anger.

Linnie spoke again. "Wehell naw, now feer, that's the speeerit. Give this bohoy a rohound of happlause!"*

There is an unexpected and unaccounted for round of applause for Percy, and then the Mayor begins droning on about a treaty of betrayal or something like that. He Zone's the Mayor out, and turns his head to Annabeth giving her his deluxe "How's it going, Sweetheart?"smirks. She responds by giving me that cold, yet sweet smile she had when Percy had gone to bed one night and found it full of dead fish. Courtesy of a certain Mr. Stoll, Mr. Stoll, and Ms. Chase. Finally, the Mayor finished his speech, but after Percy and Annabeth shook hands, Percy didn't let go, and neither did Annabeth. An Anthem that sounds vaguely like the Star-Spangled Banner begins to play, leaving Percy to stare at the sky, wondering where he'd be without his girlfriend.

**Translations: Well, now it's time for the reaping of the boys by: Linnie Bauble!**

**Well now, no fear, that's the spirit. Give this boy a round of applause.**

**Hey everyone, I won't be putting anymore translations up. Hope you liked the chapter! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Alright, I'm going to tell all of you this now, so that you won't be disappointed: I will write one chapter every week, every Friday morning.**

**P.S. I don't think this chapters too good, but Hey, that's my opinion.**

After the anthem finished, Annabeth and Percy were escorted by a platoon of white-suited policemen into a decrepit looking Justice Building. There, they locked them up in separate rooms to say good-bye to their "loved ones". Percy had to say goodbye to seven different people, including two adults that vaguely reminded him of his mom and Paul.

After an hour was up, the white-suited men (Peacekeepers, Percy remembered) escorted them to a waiting car. They were driven to a train station packed with people. Most of them were waving in Percy's direction. With a grin, Percy waved back. Apparently, his dad had bent the Mist so that he would be an extremely popular person in this world.

At the doors of the train, it is custom for tributes to dawdle there so that the cameras can pan across their faces, searching for any signs of weakness or despair. When Percy glanced at Annabeth he saw her face set in a grim mask of confidence, which told anyone who looked at her that she would be willing and able to do whatever it takes to exit from the Arena still breathing. Percy, wisely guessing that if he tried to do that, he would end up looking like he ate a bad clam, decided to wipe his face clean of emotion instead. The train was pretty fancy, with each passenger occupying a huge amount of room. Everybody even had their own private bathroom!

Linnie tells Percy, in her weird accent, that he HAS to be at dinner (She said as she showed him where the dining room was) in one hour. Percy didn't see Annabeth or Chiron **[We'll call him Chiron now, to avoid any confusion.]** anywhere, so he decided to take a Power Nap.

Linnie woke Percy up very subtly, by dragging him out of bed by his left foot. She dragged him all the way to the dining room then let him go in front of everyone else. When everyone finally understood what they were seeing, Annabeth burst out laughing, Chiron smiled in an amused way, the old woman gave him a toothless grin, and Linnie had a devilish smirk on her face.

After Percy got in his seat, they began eating in earnest. There was a delicious green soup with potatoes and corn in it, grilled cheeseburgers that smelled better than the golden apples of the Hesperides, and a divine lamb stew with plums in it. After they had their fill of ice cream, Linnie drifted off, saying "that stayin' uhp after meals gives me wrinkles." Five seconds of silence later, Chiron said "Mags, dear, would you please excuse us? We have something to talk about." Mags stood up and bowed to everyone, with her trademark toothless grin still on her face.

The second the door slid shut, Chiron and Annabeth began to speak at once, with Annabeth screeching "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" and Chiron saying "So they answered my prayer." After Annabeth had calmed down enough to stop trying to strangle Percy, he began to explain the entire story, of how they had to win these Hunger Games to clear the path for the "liberator". Chiron then cleared his throat and spoke: "I'm glad you two are here. Do you have any support?" Percy nodded and looked Chiron in the eye. "Yeah, Thalia's in some other district. I hope she doesn't do anything stupid until we explain this to her. Annabeth," he said, turning to the aforementioned, "Do you still have your Yankees cap?" Annabeth nodded shakily. "Good, we'll pass it off as your district token. Now, I think we should watch the reaping, and then go to bed." Most of the other tributes were unspectacular, except for five: Thalia, from District One, looking very disgruntled, both from Two looking huge, aggressive and menacing, the girl from seven looking like she could throw a spear pretty far, and finally the boy from Twelve, looking as though he could be Percy's match in sword fighting.

Once the reaping was over, they all stood up and went to bed. The next day, Percy woke up to Linnie's voice, which was screaming "GET UhP, LAyZY BONES!" After the ringing in his ear stopped, Percy went to breakfast.

After Breakfast, Chiron, Mags, Linnie, Annabeth, and Percy stood at the doorway of the train, preparing to enter the Capitol. Chiron had only one word of advice: "Don't protest against your stylist." Percy turned to Annabeth. "You ready, Wise Girl?" Annabeth grinned in response: "With you at my side, I can face anything." And with that, she gave him a kiss on the mouth for about five seconds (It felt like five years, thought Percy.), then the doors opened and all hell broke loose.

**Sorry for the crappy chapter! Don't flame plz :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**This is (probably) the only Annabeth POV chapter. I'll warn you beforehand. PS Sorry for the delays! I had homework problems!**

They weren't _actually_ being kidnapped, but it felt to Annabeth like it was. She managed to grab Percy's hand before being stuffed into a car. She managed to snag Percy a seat next to her, and he smiled nervously in response. He and Percy were driven to a building that Annabeth could recognize as being disturbingly similar in design to the stables back at camp.

Inside, Percy and Annabeth were separated. A disgruntled Annabeth was introduced by Mags to her Prep Team: Jolie, Linda, and Beaut. Then, she was abandoned to the horrible torment of having every single hair from her body (Except for her head hair, lashes, and eyebrows) ripped from her follicles. After every hair had been ripped, (Annabeth would have thought she were Bigfoot from the size of the pile of hair that had been taken out) Jolie began to do Annabeths nails while talking in her mutated accent about mouse parties, while Beaut did her hair, jabbering on and on about her "Mutts", whatever those were. Did Beaut own dogs? Linda, who seemed to be the spine (Relatively speaking) of the bunch, looked over her with a critical eye, muttering "The hair color is perfect . . . . But organization is terrible!" However, after both Annabeths nails and hair had been done for what seemed to her ADHD-pumped brain for like seven hours, (She checked the wall clock regularly and found that it was only two) Linda nodded in approval and shouted over her shoulder as she brought up the rear of the departing Prep team: "Annie, hon', Junn's gonna be here in a minute. You two'll get along great!" Annabeth shivered in her nudity. She hoped this Junn guy knew the meaning of "a minute".

But she wasn't disappointed, Junn, she supposed entered calmly and purposefully 15 seconds ahead of schedule. Not that she had been counting.

Junn's hair seemed to be done like a porcupine's back, and dyed red, but that seemed to be the only exorbitant thing about him. His face was built in the homely niceness of the family doctor, and his clothes were dark and unassuming, but beautifully made, making you stare at them for a long time before you realized you were drooling.

"Hello there, Ms. Chase," he said jollily. "I am Junn Bauble, but please, call me Junn." Annabeth was completely disarmed by his charm and personality. "H-H-Hello Mr. Junn," she stammered. "Oh, please dear, no more of the Mister. It makes you sound like my grandmother in a job interview. Now then, dear, uncross your arms so that I can see the right look for you. Let's see," he said while framing Annabeth with his hands. "I think I'll pair you up with your partner Percy today. You know," he said, whispering conspiratorially at her while grinning "I heard about your little, ah, exchange with him from my little sis." As she turned red, Annabeth realized with a start that Linnie was Junn's sister. "Let's get you suited up," he said with a smile.

Half an hour later, Annabeth was clothed in a strapless dress, colored a deep aquamarine blue. Her hair had seashells skillfully entwined on it, while her eyes were highlighted sky blue. Her top had a pretty low V-neck, but her dress was so long that she tried not to trip over it. When they reached the bottom level of the stable/Remake center Annabeth immediately spotted Thalia looking grumpy with a (very) tight jumpsuit that pretty much showed most of her stomach and part of something that should stay covered.

When Thalia saw Annabeth approach, her grumpy expression transformed into relief, and she began stomping (She was wearing jewel-encrusted boots) over. Although Annabeth thought she looked ridiculous, she noticed that more than half the males in the room (And it was a big room) were observing her approach closely. Annabeth grinned when her best friend got into hearing range. "Thalia, I thought you swore off boys!" she snickered. "Well, Duhhhhhhhhhh, Captain Obvious! It's my stupid stylist. I know he means well, but he's still an idiot!"Thalia paused to take a breath. "Anyway, Annabeth, I was clueless until I Seaweed Brain's mug being reaped. He either took a suicidaly stupid quest without running it past us beforehand, or angered Ares again, and the War God dumped us into this weird Rome-Gladiator future thingy." "You chose option one! Congratulations Thalia, you win!" Annabeth giggled. Thalia rolled her eyes. "Stupid heroic streak. Isn't it enough to save Olympus once?" At that moment, the elevator dinged, and out stepped Percy, with his new clothes and stylist.

Annabeth's first thought was "Wow."It was her second and third thought as well. Percy was dressed like a Roman emperor who'd taken a dip in the Mediterranean, with a seaweed wreath that looked pretty stylish, a cape that seemed to have moving fish, a purple toga with two crossed tridents (District Four's Emblem)and green sandals. Annabeth could have stood standing there all day, until Thalia elbowed her and whispered "Stop drooling, Annabeth."She stopped staring, gave Thalia a glare, giving his stylist a smile and a thumbs up, which was returned with an acknowledging smile.

They both began walking to their chariot, passing a smirking Thalia, who kept smirking even as Percy said, with a devilish grin, "Like the suit, Pinecone head," which Thalia returned with "Ditto, Seaweed Brain." As they left for the Chariot, Annabeth mouthed a _Talk to you later_ to Thalia, and when she received a grim nod in return, kept on walking forward.

With prim disapproval, Annabeth noticed that at least three-quarters of the females in her room were staring at her boyfriend.

As soon as they reached the chariot, the District One's began to move. Soon, all of the chariots began to inch forward.

Two was out now, to cheers from the audience.

Annabeth turned to her right, to Percy. "Percy," She stammered, and he turned. "Hmm?" "I just wanted to tell you. . . ." and she glanced forward. "Yeah?" The District Threes were out. Very little time was left. "I just wanted to say, I love you, Seaweed Brain, and I never want you to leave." Percy stared for a second. They were almost out now. "I Love you too, Wise Girl." And with that, he leaned in and kissed her. And that was how they went out.

**Good, right? Anyway, I'll publish again next week. Bye!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry I didn't publish sooner! The Homework Dam broke!**

_This, _Percy decided, _is the happiest moment of my life._ After all, he was making out with his girlfriend in front of about a bazillion cameras. A girlfriend who he would follow to Hell itself.

Percy's senses were not exactly at DEFCON1. His eyes were closed, so no activity or information from there. His ears were picking up a thunderous roaring and cheering sound. _Maybe we're at a Yankee game, _he wondered, disoriented. _Oh, wait. That's the Capitol crowd! They're cheering us!_ And he was right. The crowd was shouting encouragement, such as "You show 'er, Jackson!" and "AnnaBETH! AnnaBETH!" if he hadn't been making out, Percy would have grinned.

All he could feel was the chariot's floor swaying gently as they moved forward and Annabeth's body pressed up against his. He couldn't smell anything, but his taste buds were telling him that her lipstick tasted like strawberries.

Uh Oh. They were running out of air now. Percy yanked his mind away from their embrace, and for the first and last time of his life, he prayed to Zeus: _Almighty Uncle, Master of the Master of the winds, please let me hold this embrace until we want to break off. Please, Uncle. Just this once._

Zeus must've been in a good mood, because Percy felt his lungs expand, and stay expanded. Percy grinned mentally. _I'll pay you back whenever I can._

Judging from the light and position of the cheering crowds, plus the fact that the chariot had stopped, Percy guessed that they had just reached the city center. He opened his eyes and saw that a small, yet imposing man with pure white hair had just stepped up to a podium. The man began to make a speech that sounded 5 times as boring and tedious as the one composed by the mayor. Before he closed his eyes, Percy glanced at one of the big screens all around the city circle and was (at the same time) mortified, embarrassed, shocked, but most of all, elated, to see him and Annabeth kissing passionately for everyone. Percy snickered mentally. Everyone was listening to a boring speech while he and Annabeth were doing something a lot more enjoyable.

Suddenly, Percy heard the white-haired man (President Snow, he remembered) say, in a much louder voice: "And will the tributes from District Four please be kind enough to stop their supremely important business and pay attention to my speech?" Annabeth must have heard as well, because they both broke off at the same time.

There was a general snickering and guffawing from the other tributes. Thalia's grin and look was so smug that Percy had to look away. The crowd was chuckling good-naturedly and shouting things like "Come on, President Snow!" and "Leave them alone!"

Percy and Annabeth stood the rest of the speech in an embarrassed and awkward silence. So it was no small comfort when the Chariots began to move again and they returned to the remake center.

The second the doors closed behind the District Twelve Chariot, all 24 tributes were ambushed by their prep teams. As John, Joe, and Jay told him how cute he had looked, he blew a kiss to Annabeth, which she returned with a wink.


	6. Chapter 6

**It's been a long time, hasn't it? Guys, I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner, school was brutal. Any way, here is the chapter you've all been waiting for: chapter six. Oh yeah, and Warning: very mild sexual content in chapter.**

Percy staggered into his room._ Man, what a night,_ he thought. And with that, he fell asleep.

The next day, Percy woke up, groaning. _Shit, what time is it?_ He thought. He got up, and went to the shower. It wasn't like any other shower he'd been in; water of different colors and viscosity hit from every direction with varying degrees of ferociousness and force. After shaving off some water that wouldn't come off any other way, Percy toweled off, dressed, and left his room feeling refreshed. He went to the dining room, an airy room with a fantastic view to the Capitol.

Percy sat down, then, cursing his own stupidity, stood up again, since there was no food on the table. He left the room for the kitchen, to search for the Avoxes. As he walked, Percy thought about the Avoxes predicament. _ Poor people, not able to speak or anything, just mutely stare and gurgle._ As he neared the kitchen, Percy heard the very gurgling noises he was just thinking about. He paused, not knowing what to do, then decided to enter.

He walked into the room- and walked into the two District Four Avoxes making out. "Uhhh… wrong door?" The Avoxes stood up quickly, both flustered. Percy knew the reason; if they were caught doing anything that their Capitol masters didn't approve of, they might disappear off the face of the Earth. Percy felt bad for them, and wished that he could help. But there was nothing he could do. _Or is there…_ Percy thought of something. "Could you guys get me some water?" he asked. They stared at him blankly, confused that he wasn't running off, screaming his head off. "Water? You know? Agua? Glug Glug liquid?" Finally, they came to their senses, and gave him a glass full of water. Percy concentrated. "Guys, drink the water." Again, they stayed there, watching him bemusedly. Percy got impatient. "Drink!" They shook themselves and began to drink. Concentrating on the water, Percy willed it to fix any abnormalities in the Avoxes bodies. He could feel the water hesitating. It would only heal a son of the sea god, the water seemed to say. But Percy pushed, and the water gave in. it healed the Avoxes tongues. The water moved on, and the Avox pair gasped. _It must feel strange to feel your tongue regrow in your mouth, _Percy thought.

After getting over their shock, the Avoxes stared at him. Then the male spoke in a deep voice. "Thank you, kind stranger. It has been a long time since I have spoken, and it will be even more pleasant to speak more." "Yes," said the female Avox. "it will feel good to speak more." Percy grinned, and then thought of something. "Guys, its great and all that you can speak, but you can only speak in each other's company. If your Capitol handlers here you speaking, they might cut out your tongues again. And about healing your tongues," he added as the female Avox opened her mouth to speak, and looking very pleased that she could do so again without worrying about a weird gurgling sound coming out, "don't ask, because I won't tell you. Just remember; only speak in each other's company. Now," he finished, grinning devilishly, "You two lovebirds can finish what you were doing when I came in." Grinning, the Avoxes waved goodbye as he left.

"Why do you look so happy, Percy?" Annabeth asked. Percy grinned. "Oh, no reason, Annabeth. I woke up happy, even though _yesterday _I woke up in a psychotic post apocalyptic universe, with only my girlfriend and half-immortal buddy to protect me from 21 other crazy adolescents." Annabeth rolled her eyes, and they began to eat as the first course rolled in, carried by a very happy pair of Avoxes. 


	7. Chapter 7

**Just one thing: I'm back, baby!**

Percy put down his fork, satisfied. Mags and Chiron both sat licking their finger, Mags having finished her oatmeal, Chiron finishing his apples and carrots. Annabeth, having finished some time back, sat there staring at the table, occasionally looking up at their mentors. Finally, she spoke. "Chi-, I mean, Mr. Brunner, Mags, I've rea-, I mean heard of what happens next. You're gonna to tell us that in one hour, we have to go downstairs to training. Before sending us down, you're probably going to dump a lecture on us on not showing people our strengths, just improve on skills that we need working on, or learning new skills. Now that we've skipped the whole 'don't play your strengths' part of the lecture, what's next?"

Chiron chuckled. Mags doubled that, and burst out in braying laughter. "You're sharp, kid. I'll give you that," Mags chortled out. This was the first time that Percy had heard Mags speak. Maybe her whole senile act was just that; a farce, an act."Well, if you must know, what we do now is grill you munchkins for skills, and what we call in the biz 'anti-skills'. You first, boy." Percy jumped, startled."Me?" he stammered."Yes, you. Didn't you hear what I said? What are you good at? And don't give me any of that modesty crap. I want an honest assessment of your skills." Percy thought for a minute. "Well…" he started hesitatingly. "I'm pretty good with the sword." Mags nodded, and Percy, encouraged, continued more confidently. "I can handle a knife okay, but I can throw them with accuracy. I'm good with a spear at hand-to-hand combat, but I can't throw it accurately." "What about you're other skills?" Mags asked. "Like, say, dodging, camouflage, trapping, identifying plants, climbing trees…" Mags went on and on, and Percy gave her his abilities. "Now, your deficiencies. What are you bad at?" Annabeth grinned maliciously and piped up. "Archery. He sucks at archery. If you give him a bow, he'll hit anything but his intended target." Percy flushed, and heatedly began a counter attack. "Oh, yeah, well, for the record, you suck with spears. And don't even get me started with battle axes…" "At least I can hit something with them," Annabeth said smugly. "Children, please!" interrupted Chiron. "You're both intelligent and skilled. You're also giving me a headache, and since the Capitol, for some odd reason, hasn't developed aspirin, my headache hurts a lot." Percy and Annabeth glowered at him, and then stopped. "Now for you, my dear," Mags said as she turned to Annabeth. Annabeth gave her a rundown on her skills. As she finished, Chiron looked down at his watch. "Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "You'll be late if you don't get down there right now!" Percy and Annabeth sprang up and sprinted to the elevator.

As they descended, Percy began talking. "What should we train for first?" he inquired. Annabeth thought a moment, and then began with hesitation. "Well, I don't know. See, once we hook up with Thalia, we'll have her hunting and tracking skills, not to mention the long range support her archery will give us. Also, she can work the snares pretty well. You, with your sword skills, and water skills, can also hold off enemies at close range. Me, I can go invisible, sneak up on enemies and animals, and be some help. We got all the bases covered," she finished. Percy pondered on her words, then said "Yeah, but what if one of us dies? Then, we lose the edge that specific person brings us. I think we should all work on new skills- I'll work on my archery and snaring skills, you can work on your axe skills, and Thalia can work on anything she wants."

Annabeth nodded in assent, and then commented "Look, we're here." The training room was large, with mannequins all over the place. Percy and Annabeth walked over to the center of the room, where the rest of the tributes were gathered. Percy had been partially right the night of the reapings; District Two was looking menacing, the girl from District 7 with the looks of the spear thrower, and the District 12 boy eyeing the sword rack with interest. But Percy saw that District 5 and 9 looked as large as the District 2 kids. The main instructor finished her speech on how the tributes should vary in the stations they visit. The tribute group dissolved as people began heading to different stations. Thalia saw them and immediately made a beeline in their direction. Percy quickly paraphrased what Annabeth said in the elevator. Thalia nodded. "Good plan, Annabeth. I like how you think. Let's do what you say." She then began walking towards the sword rack, where the District 12 kid was testing out some swords. Annabeth cheerfully said "Bye, Percy!" and headed towards the axe table, where the District 7 kids were looking at the different axes forlornly.

Percy then headed to the Archery station, where the District 11 girl and the District 2 boy were practicing. Percy grabbed a bow and an arrow, and aimed for a target and began practicing. The instructor patiently gave Percy some pointers. By lunchtime, Percy was able to hit something that was not the wall. During lunch, Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia quickly agreed that they should be a group, and to trust no one else. This trio then looks at the other groups. Most of the tributes sat alone, disoriented and confused. However, District 2, the boy from District 1, District 5, and the girl from District 9 all sat together, laughing like old friends, and probably thinking about the best time and place to kill their "friend's". Surprisingly, District 12 and District 7 sat together, and introduced each other. Soon, they began talking seriously. "You know, guys, there may be more to these games than usual. District 7 and 12 might become a splinter group. They might even become a serious threat." Thalia looked at Percy thoughtfully. "I wonder why the Career's have included District 5 and 9 into their private club." She said thoughtfully. "Probably because we stole half of their usual members," Percy sniggered. Thalia and Annabeth started laughing. "True, True. Anyway, how's the progress with our skills?" Annabeth inquired. Percy told them about his Archery. Annabeth said that she is now competent at the battle axe. "I can actually engage in frontal combat instead of my usual sneaking around!" She exclaimed happily. Thalia told them that thanks to her awesomeness, she was now Percy's equal in sword-fighting. After seeing Annabeth's blank look and Percy's face, she grinned and said "Psyche! Actually, I'm good and getting better. After lunch, I'll train some more." Lunch ended, and they went back to training. After training, they went upstairs to eat dinner.

Percy pondered on taking a fitness/conditioning course the next day while in bed. As he drifted off to sleep, a thought hit him like a train wreck. In 3 days time, he would have blood on his hands. Human blood. He had killed monsters before, but that was different. They always came back. But kids, in the prime of their youth… That was different. Before he went off to sleep, he prayed. Not to his father or to Zeus (a god whom he owed a favor to, a favor he would certainly repay). No, he prayed to Hades, the God of Death and the Underworld. _Uncle, I am here to ask a favor; no matter what these kids do, could you please send them to Elysium? Please? _There was a slight trembling in the earth, as though Atlas were nodding his head while carrying his eternal burden. Percy grinned slightly. His Uncle had granted his favor. Then he groaned as he got comfy. _Great, _he thought. _I owe a favor to two major gods whom I've always had rocky relations with. _But then he smiled again. He would pay them back. He was a man of his word.

**Do you like the chapter? It's my longest one yet. Plz Review! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HG; Just sayin'. Oh, yeah, and, luciangirl106? Thanks for the advice. I've implemented it into this chapter. LOL.**

Percy woke up groggy again. After a quick shower (he had finally discovered the perfect shower button combo; small red, big blue, and turn the green dial 76 degrees to the right.) He left his room thinking on ways to make the combo better. _Maybe that yellow button could clean my pits better…_ after eating breakfast with Annabeth, they went downstairs to the training room again. Percy and Annabeth were slightly late, so they would miss the speech on the training options.

"I think I might work on my axe skills today, you know, see if it becomes one of my strong points."

"Seaweed Brain, I thought we discussed this; you're not supposed to touch axes again after you almost cut off Clarisse's head off."

"Yeah, but I got better! If I lose my sword in the Arena…"

"Then you draw Riptide!"

"But what if I'm in a situation where I could use the power an axe could give me? Then I could-"

"Percy… Jackson?" Annabeth and Percy looked up from their discussion. They hadn't realized that they had reached the Training Room.

It was the boy from District 12. At a close distance, he had the same build as Percy, like a sword fighter.

"Yeah…" Percy replied cautiously.

"I'm Jonathan. From District 12. I really need to talk to you." His blue eyes flicked over to Annabeth.

"Without your… friend? Girlfriend? I don't really care. I need to talk to you. Alone." Percy stood, dumbfounded. Then, glancing over to Annabeth, he uncertainly accepted.

"Okay…" Jonathan grinned.

"Right, then! Let's practice! Choose your weapon." Percy just stared. He thought that Jonathan just wanted to talk. Then he looked at Jonathan's eyes. It was like they were trying to send a message. _We'll talk while fighting, _they seemed to say. _I have something we need to discuss, without the other Tributes interrupting or overhearing._ Percy nodded in assent, and then began to reach for a sword. Then he hesitated. If he chose the sword, it would be like shouting "My weapon is the sword!" to all these teens. Changing his gesture in mid-air, he grabbed a two-bladed axe around the same weight and balance as Riptide. _ I need the practice, anyway, _he thought as he walked toward a training mat on the side of the room.

Taking a few practice swipes, Percy got into position. The axe, though similar to the sword, had a few distinctions to the sword. The first difference was, of course, that you couldn't really stab with an axe. Another difference was the balance of the weight; while the sword is heavier and denser near the hilt, an axe is more top-heavy, meaning that more power can be placed in a strike. If used properly, a battle axe could take apart any weapon. Also, a battle axe could block a swipe if its user is fast (and strong) enough.

Jonathan took his position, and began the duel. He started off with a thrust direct to Percy's heart. Percy, with some difficulty, brought his axe up as though to cut Jonathan's arm off. Jonathan reacted quickly, and parried the uppercut off the cross guard of the sword.

"I want to know what you're doing," Jonathan said quietly as he performed this maneuver. Percy, using the momentum his strikes were giving him, brought his axe above his head and struck downwards.

"What do you mean?" he inquired as he brought his axe down. Jonathan winced as he caught the axe on the edge of his sword, and then began pushing back.

"What I mean is what are you doing with your two friends? Are you making a scout Career group or something? Because if that's so, you _do_ realize that there'll be 9 Careers, and that you three will be the first to die, right?" Percy tripped Jonathan fluidly.

"No," he intoned flatly. "I am not part of the Career group. In fact, they can go to hell, for all I care. No, I've formed my own group. I know Annabeth from District 4, and Thalia and I sort of like each other."

"I know it sort of looks like a Career group," Percy added, "but the truth is that the fact we're all from the Career Districts is just a coincidence. Got it?" With another fluid motion Percy disarmed Jonathan and placed one of his axe blades at his neck. Jonathan gulped.

"Got it." Then he grinned.

"Now help me up, you big lug!" Percy grinned as well and helped Jonathan up.

"You know," he said, still grinning, "I like you, Jonathan. You're a good sword fighter too." Percy was struck by an idea.

"You know what? If your group and my group meet in the arena, we ignore each other and turn around to head the opposite way. I can't exactly let you join my little 'club', but chances are someone else will probably kill us before we meet. Deal?" Percy held out his hand.

Jonathan contemplated the hand wearily. Finally, he nodded and said "Deal."

"Percy Jackson, isn't it?" Percy and Jonathan jumped. The voice was a mixture of disdain, cockiness, determination, arrogance, and coquettishness. He turned around and saw the District 2 girl looking at him. Now that she was up close, Percy could actually take in details about her; first off, she was much smaller up close, although still tall. She was also strikingly attractive. However, there was a subtle aura around you that warned _Stay back; I'm unstable_.

"Yeah…" Percy said cautiously for the second time in five minutes.

She grinned. It was the kind of grin that a crocodile has before devouring its prey.

"I'm Serena! You, know, from District 2? Anyway, I want to ask you something."

Percy backed away slowly.

"You know, I already have a girlfriend. I'm sure you're a lovely girl and all, but since we're training for our lives here, I-"

"Oh, be quiet," she said irritably. "I'm not here to ask you out, silly! I'm here to challenge you!"

She said all of this cheerfully, as though this were her dearest sweet sixteen wish.

Percy just stared.

"Ummm… Huh?" he said intelligently.

She rolled her eyes at him.

"You know, to a duel? A practice fight? Like you had with your friend here?" She pointed at Jonathan.

"Ummm, okay, I guess. It's not to the death, right?" Percy inquired nervously.

Serena rolled her eyes.  
>"Of course not! Anyway, what weapon are you gonna pick?" she piped up cheerfully.<p>

Percy thought for a moment. _If I pick the sword, it would reveal my hand. Oh well, today looks like an axe training day._ He shrugged and picked up the axe he used in the duel against Jonathan. Serena then reached for a spear, looking very cheerful doing so as though she was picking her favorite baseball bat. As Percy headed to the training mat at the side of the room, Serena ignored him and went instead to the larger training mat at the center of the room. Percy shrugged again and changed direction. He was feeling very nonchalant about all of this.

But when they both took their dueling positions, he began to get nervous. The instructors were observing them closely; a few seconds later, all of the tributes notice the two armed teens at the center of the room. _Whoop de doo,_ thought Percy drily. _ Just what I needed, an audience._ He groaned inwardly when he saw the Gamemakers enter the room, eyeing their positions with interest.

**[Before you read the next paragraph, guys, go to YouTube and type in 'Duel of the Fates'. Click on the second video/soundtrack, and enjoy.] **

He looked over to Serena and saw her grinning_. Skata Skila,_ Percy cursed in Greek. She had been setting him up all along; if she won this duel, she'd gain face within the Career Pack and Gamemakers, and inspire fear into the other tributes. _Well, I can't let THAT happen now, can I? _ Percy thought grimly. So he made the first move.

_CLANG! _His axe impacted the shaft of her spear. Quick as a viper, she snap-kicked him in the stomach. A trained warrior, Percy didn't feel the pain much. But it still hurt. He stumbled backwards as though disoriented, all the while adjusting to her style. He sensed her slicing upwards, and he rolled to his right. _WHOOSH!_ He charged with controlled fury. He brought his axe down with two hands. Although her block left his teeth rattling, he struck again and again, denying her the chance to renew her assaults. Serena attacked using the speed and maneuverability of a spear without a shield. If he kept her busy blocking, she'd be unable to strike. Suddenly, an attack from the butt of her spear sent him sprawling. He rolled backwards, to gain some breathing room. He looked up, and saw that five meters separated them. He grasped his axe firmly, and, with two hands charged. He saw her eyes widen, saw the spear brought to block. But it was too much strength. The spear snapped in two, and Serena was sent sprawling on the ground, with Percy's axe three centimeters from her nose.

**[Okay, you can turn it off now.]**

She was panting heavily, her eyes alight with joy.

"Wow, Percy, that was one hell of a fight! You sure know how to turn a girl on!" she added coyly. With a shudder, Percy realized that Serena was such an eager fighter because fighting was apparently a "Turn-On". He shuddered again, because this meant that she actually derived sexual pleasure from killing. _Ewww... _Percy thought. He threw his axe away, and walked away as well. He hadn't noticed it before, but it was time for lunch.

"I'm in the mood for a bowl of Mac and Cheese, aren't you?" he asked a dumbstruck Thalia and equally stupefied Annabeth.

**Thanks for reading! Just so you know, I got the idea of a killer **_**femme fatale**_** from the movie **_**GoldenEye, **_**a James Bond film. Plz Review! It's what keeps me going!**__


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey guys; I just got the best idea for the Hunger Games! Here's a hint; listen to the song Better in Time by Leona Lewis. This'll give you an idea!**

"You did WHAT?"

Chiron was mad, Percy could tell that. He was pacing the floor (as much as you could pace with a wheelchair) with an alarming expression on his face. Finally, he stopped, with his back to Percy and took a deep breath. He turned around with one of those teacher expressions that comes out of a can; _Test Face, $ 5.89. Disappointed Face, 50% off! Only $ 2.99!_ Today, he put on his "Disappointed Face".

"Percy," he said with a very controlled face. "Did anyone else see this?"

Percy turned beet red. **[By the way, have any of you readers seen a beet? I haven't.]**

"Uhhhhh… well, let's see; that fat Gamemaker that looks like a plum saw, and-"

"Percy, they _all_ look like that." Annabeth interjected.

"Then you get my point, right?"

Chiron's face muscles twitched, as though he was trying to control himself.

"I shouldn't ask, since it'll probably end with one of the Avoxes tackling me to prevent me from strangling you, but here it is; what weapon did you use?"

Percy exhaled in relief. Chiron thought that he had used a sword, and therefore broken the biggest rule in training: Never reveal your biggest strength; save that for your training session.

"No. I was training with the axe, so I chose that weapon. It turns out my training worked, right?"

Chiron exhaled in relief as well, and gave a weak smile. "Yes, I suppose so, Percy. Now," he said, all business, "Tomorrow you have the private session with the Gamemakers. These guys are tough, so I suggest that you play your strengths." "Axe boy here" (he pointed at Percy) "Can show them his axe or sword skills, either way." "Annabeth, since Percy's been drawing a lot of my attention away from you with his adventures lately, I don't know what you're good at." 

Annabeth looked thoughtful, then "Well, I'm good with the knife, but my favorite heavy weapon is probably the quarterstaff, with strengthened metal tips on the ends."

Chiron nodded in approval, but Percy gawked at her.

"You basically want to go through a month of hell on Earth fighting with a _stick?_"

Annabeth nodded, unabashed. Percy gawked some more, then nodded.

"Fair enough. Now, I'm pooped. Let's go to bed."

Percy woke up refreshed. Then, he remembered that today were the private training sessions. Percy knew he would probably pass with flying colors, but he was still nervous. His training score could get him sponsors, and sponsors could save his life if deployed at the right time and place. He was worried about Annabeth as well. He was still nervous about the quarterstaff thing. Going through hell with only a stick between you and sudden death was not very comforting. He turns on his side and suddenly sees a mop of blond hair. He freezes, thinking for a moment that Serena had somehow gotten up here to assassinate him. Then, common sense kicked in, and he remembered that Serena had jet-black hair, not blond hair. He begins talking to her, uncomfortably aware that his voice was about two octaves higher than normal.

"Annabeth?" he squeaked. "What exactly are you doing in my bed?"

Annabeth was still deep asleep, but tumbling and turning and muttering. "Not… Spiders! No! NO!"

Percy glared at her, then began shaking her, thankful that his voice was normal now.

"Annabeth! Wake UP!"

Annabeth straightened suddenly, her arms flailing around.

"Spiders everywhere! Where's my knife?" Her flailing arms hit Percy on the nose.

Annabeth looked down at Percy with a curious expression.

"Oh, hey Percy! I didn't see you there."

Percy came up, rubbing his nose.

"For you to wake up is it always necessary for you to hit someone? And anyway, what are you doing on my bed?"

Annabeth blushed.

"Well... you see, Uhhhmm, I was…"

Percy looked aghast.

"What? Spit it out!"

"I was cold, okay? I couldn't get to sleep, so I sneaked into your room to share your body warmth. What else do you think happened?

Now it was Percy's turn to blush.

Annabeth looked amused.

"Wow, you have a dirty mind, Percy. I'm surprised."

"Annabeth, please, get out of my room. I want to take a shower." Annabeth snorted.

"Fine"

"Spider"

Annabeth jumped.

"Where? Where? " she screeched. Then she looked around, and, seeing no spiders, glared at Percy.

"Very funny," she drawled sarcastically as she left the room.

Percy sniggered, and then took a shower. He began to think through maneuvers to go through at the training session. _Maybe the Viper Decapitator could impress them…_ He ate breakfast ravenously, eager to get the private session over with.

Downstairs, Thalia was impatiently waiting for them. Percy discovered why five seconds later.

"Do you think I should show the Gamemakers my spear skills? Or should I just show them how I shoot? Maybe I should do both an-" Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Thalia, we don't care. You're good at both, just pick the one that shows more pizzazz, you know? I think you should do the bow, since you could, like, take down some lights or something, and make them notice you. Anyway," Annabeth continued. "You're the second tribute to show them your skills. They'll still be sober then. Maybe."

A thought occurred to Percy during this conversation.

"I think we should work on our strengths during this session. I mean, we've got an hour till lunch. How much can anyone see of our abilities in one hour?" Thalia and Annabeth nodded in assent.

"You're right, Percy. Besides, I've been itching to try out those bows for three days."

Percy frowned.

"But we've only been training for two days."

"Exactly!"

Annabeth stepped between them to prevent the fight that was sure to come.

"Let's get started, then!"

For the next hour, Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth trained with their favorite weapons, doing their best to appear mediocre while still conditioning their skills.

Soon, it was lunchtime. Thalia's partner was called up first. 15 minutes later, Thalia herself is called up.

"Shoot straight, Pine Cone Head." Percy whispers as she passed his table. Thalia grinned slightly, but said nothing. After an hour, it was Percy's turn. Before he left, Annabeth kissed him.

"For luck," she explained. He grinned, and said "Good luck to you too."

As he entered the room, Percy noticed that the Gamemakers were still sober. Good. That would make it easier to get their attention. He headed straight for the sword rack, and lovingly selected the perfect sword. He went to the area where there were dummies for training with the sword. First, he decapitated three dummies with one sweep of the sword. He then stabbed two more in the gut, twisting his blade as it extracted itself from the dummy. He made short work of almost all the other dummies in the room, and then took the remaining dummies near the training mat he and Jonathan had dueled on. That way, Jonathan would be able to utilize them. At the end of the fifteen minutes, Percy went for the grand finale. He stood at the center of the room, with the Gamemakers nodding in approval. He gave them a lopsided grin.

"Thank you, and good night!" he crowed, then snapped his fingers. The sprinklers came on with a _Whoosh_, and he was gone.

**Thanks for reading! Plz review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hello Yello!**

**P.S. I don't own PJatO or tHG. Oh yeah, and I know that some of you are thinking about the last chapter; **_**Why did the Gamemakers start calling at lunchtime? Katniss© went to train at like ten o'clock!**_** The book states that the sessions begin at lunchtime, and then I did some math; 15 minutes of training time for 24 terrified tributes is equal to six hours! Therefore, while Percy, the District 4 male, had to wait for an hour and a half, Katniss, the District 12 female, the last in pecking order, had to wait 5 hours and 45 minutes.**

Chiron was pacing again, the second time in just as many days.

"Let me get this straight," he growled. "You showed your god powers to the Gamemakers?"

Percy shifted in his seat, with Annabeth next to him. It was now around 4 hours after he had finished his training session, so it was now probably Jonathan's turn to show the Gamemakers his skillage. Percy hoped no other tributes had seen the dummies he had piled in the corner. He liked Jonathan, and wanted him to get a good score; he deserved good sponsors as much as Percy, and even more than Serena.

Chiron sighed and rolled up to Percy.

"Percy, the Mist is powerful, extremely so, but not to the extent that you can flaunt your powers in front of cunning and clever mortals like these. Now, in the Arena, the gods will hopefully bend and manipulate the mist more than usual. There, I don't care if you summon a water trident and impale all of your enemies. People will assume that you picked it up at the Cornucopia. But here…"

Percy sighed sheepishly and apologized like a five-year old caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Sorry, Chiron." He mumbled. Chiron looked distinctly happier. He looked at his watch and smiled.

"Time to see your training scores!"

Percy collapsed into his bed, feeling slightly happier. _A 10. I can't believe I got a 10 . _He supposed that his flashy exit had given him that one extra point that he needed. His enemies and friends had good scores as well; Serena had a 9. Her partner had a 10, like Percy. The rest of the Career's had eights. Thalia had a 10 as well, probably explaining the ruined machinery that had been on the floor when Percy had entered. Annabeth had a 9, something that infuriated her, since she had never gotten lower on a test than Percy before (even though it was a test to see who could kill the best). Jonathan had gotten a 9 as well, probably having used Percy's reserve dummy force. Percy realized with a chill that tomorrow would be his last full day in the Capitol; the next day would be the beginning of the Hunger Games.

After breakfast, Chiron sighed and began his usual lecture.

"Tonight is-"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Mr. Brunner, I already told you, we know what happens! Tonight are the interviews and we each have to have, like, a sort of 'attitude' for the crowd. I know what _mine_ is." She directed a sidelong glance to Percy. "I just don't want certain protective boyfriends to tell me what a bad idea it is. I would like to be coached separately." She finished with a formal voice, as though she were declaring independence. Then she looked at Percy again with tenderness in her eyes. "It's not that I don't trust you Percy, it's just that sometimes you have a crazy idea that you know could go sour, but you want to try it anyway, right? I'm wise most of the time," Percy snorted at that, but let her continue. "But sometimes, crazy ideas can help, right? And I think that my crazy idea will definitely help." She finished her soliloquy with a sigh. Percy grinned.

"Wow, Annabeth. Long-winded, much? Anyway, if you want privacy, great; you got it. I have my approach, and though I know it needs its defining edges, here's the main idea: Protective boyfriend." Everyone in the room, _including _the Female Avox picking up the plates, raised their eyebrows. Percy rolled his eyes, and then continued regardless. "Listen: the Capitol crowd loved our chariot ride scene; probably hadn't seen such a positive emotion from a tribute before. If I'm the tender and kind boyfriend who wouldn't let anyone touch a hair on their girlfriends head, they might sympathize and sponsor Annabeth, or me. Who knows? Maybe one of their 'Brangelina©' like couples might sponsor us. _Viva la Percabeth,_ right?" Mags looked doubtful, but Chiron and Annabeth were pondering Percy's arguments. Annabeth was the first to break the silence.

"Percabeth, Percy? _Really?"_

Percy raised his hands defensively.

"Hey, just a thought. So, what do you guys think?" Mags grunted.

"You know what people like most about famous couples? The tragedies that befall them. The Gamemakers might make you or Annabeth more prominent targets, to have the Capitol audience watch all of the dangers you face. How many people would pay through the teeth to see how you react when you find Blondie here with an arrow up her nose, huh? The rest of the plan is sound, though. Good work, kid; I like your imagination. Just think on the things I said. All things have effects, no matter how small." Percy blinked, and for the first time, doubts formulated on the likeliness of him or his friends making it through the Hunger Games unscathed. He shook his doubts and turned to Chiron. Chiron looked thoughtful still.

"I have the same qualms about this as Mags. Everything else is flawless; there are many romantic fools here in the Capitol, and as far as Linnie has been able to ascertain, many are on Team 'Percabeth', as you call it. You will certainly benefit from that approach." Chiron finished uncomfortably, and turned to Annabeth.

She was crying, the tears leaking out of her eyes.

Before Percy could do anything, she wiped her eyes and held up her hand. Despite the tears, she spoke with a clear voice.

"Percy. I knew you were smart, manipulative, more cunning than a fox, devious, merciless, and most of all, dangerous. But I never knew you could be tender and loving while being all of the above. I love you." She said it with emotion, but not with heat or passion, as one would while kissing. And that made it all the more precious. Percy broke out into a grin.

"Perfect, Annabeth. That's the only way I want it to be. Now, then," He said as he looked up at his mentors. "Let's get started."

After his coaching with Chiron, and four hours of torment and Media Training with Linnie on how to walk, how to smile, how to walk AND smile, how to laugh captivatingly, and how to avoid awkward using what Linnie called "the Bridge Technique". He and the other tributes were at the city circle, setting themselves up for the interviews. Percy was searching the tribute crowd, looking for standouts. He spotted Jonathan wearing a dashing bespoke Armani suit, James Bond style. Percy waved, and then continued to trawl through the crowd. Percy was wearing a sort of casual version of Jonathan's getup. He was wearing a loose turquoise tie (always with the Aquatic look, right?), a white formal shirt with two of the top buttons unbuttoned. Black pants, of course, and black tennis shoes customized to look formal. He was like a sword with an ornate and decorative scabbard that concealed a hardy and tested blade. Thalia, wearing a silvery evening gown that was much more subtle than her last costume, was doing the same as Percy. Their eyes met, and they both grinned at each other, as friends. Then they broke eye contact and kept sifting through the tributes. Percy saw Serena, looking stunning in what appeared to be a tight black gown. She caught him staring at her, and winked. Percy, even though he was dating, gave her a roguish wink to keep her off balance, which seemed to work. Suddenly, Annabeth sidled up to him, with a silky kimono that almost seemed to float on her.

"Anyone interesting?" she asked as she began to emulate Percy. Percy shook his head, and pointed out Thalia and Serena.

"Well, Thalia is a honed blade in that dress, and Serena is going with the sexy look." Then he pointed out Jonathan.

"And Jonathan, the District 12 guy is dressed up like James Bond. To be honest, he does look a little bit like Daniel Craig. . ." Annabeth waved her hand.

"Enough with your James Bond obsession, Percy." She waved her hand impatiently, as though she were shooing a fly.

"You were saying something about Serena. You think she looks sexy?" She gave him an accusing look. Percy backed away slowly, his hands in front of him.

"Hey," he began defensively. "Just because she's a slut doesn't mean she can't look sexy. And besides, Annabeth what does it matter? We're not going to comment on her dresses, anyway, right?" Annabeth gave an evil smile.

"Why not?" She challenged. Percy opened his mouth to question her statement, and then he heard Caesar Flickerman's voice resonating throughout the City Circle.

"All Tributes, please take your seats." Percy gulped, and then looked at Annabeth. She gave him a reassuring smile, and together, they moved towards the District 4 seats.

And so the interviews began. Thalia, being the District 1 female, took point and began the interviews. She was going for the smooth killer who could kill without blinking. When asked on her 10, she slyly said that everyone else better watch out, or else they'll end up dead. Finally, she loudly proclaimed that her allies would be Percy and Annabeth. When Caesar asked her about whether or not she would kill these allies if they were the last three in the arena, Thalia stood up of her own accord, smiling as she walked away.

"Not a chance, Caesar. Not in a million years." She winked at us as she passed, ignoring the angry stares from the Careers. Serena's District partner, a hulk of muscle and bone, was a boy called Alexander. When queried about whether or not he was called Alex by his friends, he shook his head, and, in a deep voice that reminded Percy of a grizzly bear, answered "No. I have no friends." Percy instinctively knew that this boy could kill without emotion. No pleasure, like Serena, or guilt, or even anger. Just the surge of adrenaline. Serena went for sexy, obviously, and made some not-so-subtle hints about her and Percy. When the cameras zoomed in on Percy, he waved them away good naturedly, and then gave a wink and a shake of his head. The District 3's were a blank, with Percy just concentrating on one thing: Annabeth.

Annabeth went up. Percy retreated from his mantra, curious what Annabeth's approach was going to be. Knowing his girlfriend, nothing unoriginal.

"So, Annabeth. What do you like best about the Capitol? The food? Or the training?" Annabeth had told Percy that part of her strategy was to be eager about the games, to get them over with.

Annabeth sighed. "Well, Caesar, the food _is_ good, and I've really improved in training. But what I'm really excited about is the games." A glint comes into her eye. "And there's someone whom I would really like to meet in the woods sometime. . ." The audience was eager and surprised to see the violence of the games this early in the proceedings. Caesar took advantage, and asked the question that was on everyone's minds:

"Who?" Annabeth looked vehemently at the stands, and Percy felt the blood drain out of his face. Oh. Crap.

"Her," said Annabeth, and she pointed at Serena. Serena made exaggerated defensive movements at the cameras, which only excited the audience further. For a second, Percy thought the Peacekeepers would have a full blown catfight on their hands between two highly trained and deadly girls. But Annabeth opted to beat Serena up with words, instead.

"Anyone who _dares_ make a move on Percy, especially publicly, will have my full enmity. To kill my relationship with Percy is the last straw, and I will have no more of it. Long live Percabeth!" She shouted, and the crowd roared. She then sits down and crosses her arms with dignity and sits straight. Percy face-palmed himself and groaned. This may have struck a fatal blow to Serena having any sponsors, but this also earned Annabeth, and therefore Thalia and Percy, the pure and unbridled anger of the Careers. Just then, a beeper sounded, and Annabeth stood up and walked away, to cheers from the crowd. Percy gave her a weak smile, which she returned full force, and stood up.

Percy didn't remember much of the interviews after that; he played protective boyfriend, and that set the audience even _more_ against Serena. Jonathan was excellent, and the fact that he got a 9 intrigued everyone. Percy knew that Jonathan, with his Greek God good looks and his 9, would rope in sponsors.

Percy collapsed in bed, and passed out, because of the sheer exhaustion of watching his girlfriend put herself in the path of a speeding train.

**You know, it's weird, because while boy tributes go first in training, girl tributes go first in the interviews. Anyway, can't wait till the games. Next chapter is: Chapter 11 (Cornucopia time!)**

**PS Hunger Games movie= Awesome! Review and give me your opinions on whether or not this opinion is true! (Oh yeah, and if you could comment on the story too, that would be great.)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you for all for those reviews! 16 people voted! (You know, for someone who got 265 visitors in the month of April alone, 16 people is sort of sad) But no matter. At least half of the reviews I've received have begged me to start the Hunger Games, and not keep my awesome fans waiting; well, here it is: The Hunger Games. BTW: To all of Yo who have asked me (and I have counted five); NO! NONONONONONONONO! I will not bring in any other PJatO (Percy Jackson and the Olympians to those of you not used to Fan fiction shorthand) characters into my story. Sorry to those who do write those kind of stories, but reading stories in which PJ characters kill one another make me REALLY uncomfortable. (Like I said before: No offense). Anyways… Back to the story.**

Percy woke up with a woozy feeling, and also a worried feeling. He was confused as to why he was feeling worried, and then it hit him like a rocket. A series of unconnected images and words flooded into his mind. He groaned and collapsed on the bed. He remembered last night. But then he rallied. _I trust Annabeth, and Annabeth did what she thought was right. Let it go. _After this, Percy felt slightly better. As he was brushing his teeth, Percy was still confused as to why he felt so tense and nervous. Suddenly, he remembered. _Oh, Joy. Hunger Games. Right. So happy! _Percy grimaced, and then spat. At breakfast, he and Annabeth chatted in a quiet, tense manner, not wanting to touch a subject that was half an hour away. Soon enough, Chiron came rolling in, with Mags strolling behind him. Chiron smiled, but it was an empty one. He solemnly shook Percy's hand, wishing him good luck as he did so. When Annabeth hugged him, he tenderly hugged back, as one would your favorite child. Both Annabeth and Percy went to the porch overlooking the city center, escorted by Junn and Jayylee, Percy's stylist. Once there, they are drawn into a helicopter-like craft, where a tracker is injected into Percy's blood stream. After that, they are brought back inside. Chiron and Mags are nowhere to be seen. After around twenty minutes of waiting, Percy and Jayylee go outside to a different balcony, while Annabeth and Junn went to another balcony on the other side of the building. As Percy got into the Hovercraft that would bring him to his potential doom, he looked up, then down, and saw Hovercrafts on all of the floors, taking in their cargo. There were no windows in this hovercraft, so that tributes wouldn't know what the arena would look like. At the launch center, Percy mechanically ate some food that they gave him. Though they offered soda and juice, he asked for water. That was the only thing that would comfort him now. Suddenly:

"All tributes, Prepare for launch." Percy drained his cup, and stood. Jayylee gave him a pat on the back.

"Go get'em, Percy." He smiled back at her and stood in the tribute tube. The glass walls rose, and he began to ascend.

**[Before you guys read this, you should go to YouTube, type in Battle of the Heroes, and read all of this with that soundtrack going. PS I am a Star Wars fan. LOL. BTW, listen to that soundtrack for the entire chapter.]**

As the plate rose, Percy began looking around. Suddenly, the rising motion stopped.

"Let the Seventy third annual Hunger Games begin!" Said the disembodied voice of Claudius Templesmith. Percy tuned his ears for the gong and began to look around. The 24 tributes were on a flat hilltop, with accumulated rubble of long-forgotten civilizations all around them. In the distance, Percy saw temples of the design of Romans, saw a building that had the disturbing shape of the camp amphitheater. Far away, around three miles distance, was a majestic ziggurat. Percy concentrated on the tributes; the terrain could come later. He would not run away like some frightened puppy. He immediately spotted Thalia, on his right, separated by only one tribute. She was also looking at him. He looked on his left, and spotted Annabeth looking at him as well, separated by three tributes. With a series of gestures, Percy signaled that they were to run straight to the Cornucopia, and hold their ground there. They both nodded in acknowledgement. Percy then set himself up for the run of his life.

Gong.

And Percy was off, running like hell. In the corner of his eye, he spotted someone running at him, wielding a spear of inferior quality. Percy pretended to bend down to grab something on the ground, as he grabbed Riptide in his pocket. He drew his sword and jumped, flipping in the air as he did so. Going over Serena's spear, he slashed at her, giving her a nick on the arm and breaking her spear as he did so. He threw Riptide to the side, as though to abandon it, though well he knew that it would return to his pocket soon. He continued to run towards the Cornucopia. He was the first of the little trio to arrive. The first thing he saw was shields, from circular ones the size of a Frisbee to huge rectangular ones that the Roman Legionnaires used. He grabbed a midsize shield around three feet in diameter. He then saw three different swords. One was a straight, four foot sword, longer than Riptide. Percy grabbed it, and it felt just as light. The next sword was a strange sword, almost like a scythe. Percy vaguely remembered a name from weapons identification class. _A_ _Khopesh_. Probably Jonathan's sword. The final sword was a huge, two handed affair, around 5 feet long. Percy wouldn't like to meet the wielder of that monster. However, he suspected that eventually, he would have to. Suddenly, there was a flurry of movement in his peripheral vision on his right. Turning around, he saw Thalia with two arm-length knives. Behind her, a girl was limping away, covered in cuts, with a half-smushed backpack. Thalia examined her nails.

"She thought I was going to steal her backpack. I corrected her of the notion, then taught her that making assumptions in a fighting situation is just about the worst thing you can do." She sheathed her two knives, and grabbed a bow and a sheath of arrows. Stringing the bow, she casually grabbed an arrow, aimed, and released. Percy just had time to see who she was aiming at when he saw the District 5 girls ear fly off, pierced by an arrow. The girl immediately turned on her heels and ran. Thalia turned to Percy.

"We need to hold off this pack of kids until Annabeth gets here." Percy nodded, then

"Alright, but no killing, okay? I already feel guilty for shooting that kids ear off." Thalia rolled her eyes, and then nodded. All of a sudden, Percy was caught up beating kids away from his door, trying to keep them away from the precious supplies. However, their hard work paid off, and not a single tribute slipped through the net. Suddenly, a series of _thwacks _resounded throughout the small Cornucopia natural platform. Kids went flying right and left, and all of a sudden Annabeth was standing in front of Thalia and Percy, holding a long, 9-foot staff, the tips covered with hard metal cases. Before either of them could say anything, Annabeth swept the staff one handed to her left, knocking a gang of Careers to their feet. Propping her staff on her shoulder, she leisurely walked towards them, poking the groins of all of the male Careers for good measure. She stopped in front of the flabbergasted pair and grinned.

"Hey kids! Miss me?"

After a brief argument of who should collect the supplies, upon which Percy argued that he and Thalia should guard while Annabeth collected, and Thalia pointed out that Annabeth's staff had a longer range than either of Percy's swords. Having finished that, Percy went grumbling back to the Cornucopia. _Girls get to have all the fun,_ he thought. However, when he reached the Cornucopia, he got serious. _What to take, what to take._ He pondered this question for several precious seconds. He grabbed three mostly empty backpacks that had about a million pockets, and what appeared to be a series of rigid polymer tubes that helped carry most of the backpack's weight. First, shelter. Percy snatched two inflatable tents and an air pump, stuffing them in the backpack he designated as his. Then, he gathered three sleeping bags and put them in there as well. Taking three First Aid kits, he strapped them onto the three backpacks. He grabbed three foot-long knives, one for each of them. He took lighters, and for good measure a small tank of gasoline. He saw four short, slashing axes, and strapped two to his pack. He grabbed three sturdy spears, and strapped them to the pack. Spotting a long roll of black rope, he stuffed it into Annabeth's pack. Seeing a small pack that contained metal tips that were similar to the ones on the top of Annabeth's staff, he put that in as well.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Move your ass! We've got a whole party here!" Percy spared a glance to his companions, and saw a whole horde of tributes trying to get past. He upped the ante, and moved faster. Grabbing food, mainly fruits and containers of water, he chanced upon a strange sort of slingshot. Curious to try it out, and shouting "Incoming!" as he picked it up, he swung it above his head. Releasing it on its fifth revolution, it went flying towards the District Three's feet. With an audible crunch, it impacted against the legs of the boy. Tripping up, he was immediately swallowed by the unarmed but dangerous horde. _Bolas slingshot,_ thought Percy as he stuffed water canteens into the packs. He spotted the night vision sunglasses in the corner, and grabbed a pack of Iodine tablets, enough for 600 gallons of water. The sunglasses went into each pack. As he reached for a bag of compasses, he spotted five weird white objects. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that they were wireless earpieces. That was exactly what they needed! With the night-vision goggles, and the earpieces, they could go hunting in the night without getting lost inseparably. Grabbing three and smashing the other two, he shouldered his pack and dragged the other two packs to the entrance where Annabeth and Thalia had been pushed back, fighting back the Career Pack.

"Come on!" He shouted. As he shouted, a small group of four tributes were sprinting towards the Cornucopia. Squinting, Percy saw a lean, wiry figure at the head. Jonathan. Explaining the situation to Annabeth and Thalia, they covered the foursomes approach to the Cornucopia. Jonathan paused, grinned at Percy, then sprinted inside, heading towards the khopesh. Percy saw the District Sevens eying his axes, so he tossed them both of the axes. Grinning in response, they moved to join the fight, howling like wolves as they did so. Grabbing a double bladed axe with a haft two feet long, Percy looked at Jonathan's District partner for the first time. Small, but fast-looking, she was going directly for a pair of foot-long knives. When she did join the fight, she fought like a tiger, slashing at the Careers viciously. When Percy joined the melee, the Careers immediately realized that the fight went (in five seconds, no less) from 2 to 6 to 7 to 6 odds. It was only a matter of time when Serena cried "Retreat!" and the pack backed off. Percy's trio stayed there long enough to guard Jonathan and his friend's back while they grabbed everything they needed. As Jonathan's group moved away in one direction, and Percy's group moved away, towards a cluster of Ruins that could provide shelter, the Careers dived through the divide towards the Cornucopia, and tried to scavenge usefulness from what was left. Since Jonathan and Percy had both grabbed as much as they could, and smashed the rest, there wasn't a lot left.

Now, Thalia was having misgivings. Despite having engaged in combat with six Careers for almost twenty minutes, she had only inflicted bruises, scrapes, and minor twisting of ankles. Nothing seriously crippling. So this is what made her turn around, calmly take an arrow out of her quiver, drawback, and-

"What's taking you so long, Thalia?" interrupted Percy irritably. Thalia, who had been aiming for Serena's heart, started slightly, dipping the bow down slightly, and released. The arrow darted towards the Career group, until:

!

It was not a cry; it was a howl of anguish. The District 6 girl went down, clutching at her leg, her face rigid with pain. The Career pack, Jonathan's group, and Percy and Annabeth all stared at Thalia. She had made a 300 yard shot at a narrow target, and had hit it directly in the middle.

"Let's move on," Thalia said with disappointment. As they headed into the ruins, the Cannons began.

_Boom._

_Boom._

_Boom._

Then nothing. Only three deaths in the so called "Bloodbath". Most likely the Career's had been so busy trying to crush Percy and his comrades that the other tributes had escaped.

As Percy headed towards his group, who were taking inventory, he wondered how this game was going to end, with 21 well supplied, well armed tributes all thirsting for each other's blood.

**Finally! I HAVE FINISHED! EUREKA! You know, this chapter took almost 3 weeks to write. Anyways, Homework was cutthroat the past few weeks, but that's over now. The summer will bring new chapters. Thank you, and goodnight!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Ahhhhh, a new chapter, finally! Enjoy!**

As Percy walked down the hill, toward the tomb complex, he was thinking about a very serious and worrying question. The cannons never lied; only three kids had died in the Bloodbath. Not good. With 21 well armed and well supplied tributes roaming the arena, the chances of survival for everyone had gone down drastically. Percy approached the campsite, noting that Thalia and Annabeth had set up the tents, and had placed the sleeping bags inside, as well as the supplies. Annabeth had already built a fire using the lighter, and had tried to warm herself up; the arena was beginning to cool down, after the blazing heat of the afternoon. Percy had just gotten back from a grueling scouting mission, to try and ascertain whether anyone had decided to settle nearby or not. As far as Percy could tell, his half of the circle had proved deserted. Annabeth had proposed this mission, for the sake of security- what if the Careers had set up shop nearby? A short argument ensued, in which everybody argued why they should be the one going. Finally, Annabeth grew tired of the bickering and split three duties: Watch dog, half scout, and half scout. Seeing that all of the spears were different lengths, they "drew spears", and Annabeth got the shortest one. She looked up, glad to see that he was safe and sound. Percy collapsed on the ground near her, exhausted at his efforts. She gave him a questioning glance. Percy shook his head, too tired to speak. Before either of them could do more, something burst out of the bushes. Percy, despite his exhausted state, jumped to his feet, shouting a feeble "Die!", and Thalia just stared.

"Dude, you really have got to work on your 'Terrifying People' skills." She groped for her water canteen and took a long pull.

"So," said Percy wearily. "What did you find out there? Careers? Bunnies? Dinosaurs?" Thalia laughed, spry as ever.

"Nope. Not even a bunny, Percy. How 'bout you?" Percy shook his head.

"I combed the place, and found no one. Everybody cleared out after the bloodbath." Thalia looked thoughtful as she pulled out a rabbit from her scout pack and began to gut it. The scout packs were useful little things that they had found in their backpacks while they were rummaging around. Small bags that could hold most things, they could leave the unnecessary things back at camp and bring the important stuff on raids and hunting trips. They were all silent for a while, resting, until Annabeth piped up.

"This year, the terrain is pretty strange. I would call it a desert, but in the distance, to the east, I can see a jungle. A big one too, surrounding a great ziggurat." Percy looked around at the tomb complex. A sudden realization washed over him chilling him to the bone.

"Annabeth?" he spoke, noting that he was whispering. His girlfriend looked at him, worried.

"What is it, Percy? You look like you've seen a ghost. Wait- have you seen any Careers?" Percy shook his head violently.

"No- it's not that. I think I know what the terrain is." Thalia, impatient, punched him on the shoulder.

"Well?" She said. Percy looked at his friends straight in the eyes.

"I think this terrain is based on the ruins of great civilizations." This strange statement was greeted by skeptic curiosity from Annabeth, and just plain skepticism from Thalia. Percy rolled his eyes, his old self again.

"Don't you get it? Look around you, Thalia. These tombs have hieroglyphs. Egyptian. About a mile in that direction," he pointed northeast. "Is what looks like the ruins of the Parthenon. Greek. On the opposite side of the compass, southeast, are the ruins of the Pantheon. Roman. And those ziggurats that Annabeth spotted? I would say one of those Mexican **[I know that it's "Mesoamerican", but this is Percy]** tribes." Percy was satisfied on the stunned expressions on his friends' faces.

"You guys look like you got hit by a pigeon," he said with satisfaction.

After this shocking revelation, they discussed other topics.

"I mean, you guys heard the cannons with me, right?" Percy asked. "Clearly, only three people died in the Bloodbath. The Careers have some good supplies, but the rest of the teams also have some pretty good stuff, right?" Annabeth took the floor.

"We know Percy; we just have to come up with a way to deal with this. The Careers will probably be hunting in the night for tributes to try and make up for lost time. Anyway, that isn't the most pressing thing right now. We need to find water, and find it fast. I know we have a pretty good storage of water, but I don't want us to get cocky." Percy nodded in agreement. The trio then talked about other things: potential mutts, ("I don't know about you guys, but the mutts are probably gonna be monsters from the different mythologies") the inventory, ("Really, Percy, why did you have to take the blue soda?") and the other teams. ("I wonder how Jonathan is holding up…). They discussed all of these topics well into the night, until...

Percy was opening his mouth to respond to a wise-crack when the sound of helicopters resonated through the arena. Above their heads, a giant screen flashed on, with the mangled "Star Spangled Banner" going through the first few notes. The boy and girl tributes from District 10 flashed, and so did the girl from 9. Then all was silent. They looked around, and were startled to see that it was night already.

Annabeth was the one who brought the idea up.

"I think we should take watches, guys, looking out for signs of trouble." She then volunteered to take the first watch. Percy and Thalia, too tired to argue, just fell asleep. Annabeth's watch came and went, and nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Thalia donned a black Polartec jacket as she traded with Annabeth. Grabbing her bow and arrows, she began to patrol the grounds.

Two hours later, nearing the end of Thalia's shift, just when she had thought that nothing could go wrong, she heard a noise. Her head turned so fast, she got a cramp in her neck. Rubbing her neck as she donned the night vision sunglasses, she looked out- and saw nothing. Grabbing her bow and arrows, she stepped out of the campfires warm, protective glow, and prowled closer to the sound of shuffling. Seeing that there was a control screen on the sunglasses, she briefly wondered how to access it, and then shrugged. The motion expanded the menu, and asked her what she would like. She figured out that the glasses were not active, and she had to set a specific filter for them to work. She selected the infrared spectrum, and then turned to the noise. In front of her, there were dozens of small heat signatures. Probably animals of the desert. However, there was one large heat signature heading her way. Acting through instinct, she drew her bow and aimed it at the signature, yelling out as she did so.

"Percy! Annabeth! Wake up and get your asses over here!" In a flash, Percy had his brand new sword out in a defensive position, and Annabeth was facing the opposite way, spear and shield in hand. Noticing that they were not _actually_ under attack, they both rushed over to Thalia, donning their sunglasses. In a few terse words, Thalia explained how the sunglasses worked. Percy and Annabeth, grumbling about their sleep, looked at where Thalia was aiming- and fell silent. Thalia noticed that the heat signature was not running at them, but staggering- moving at approximately 5 feet every minute. Percy quietly said "Stand down Thalia; he's injured. Keep your bow ready, but I don't think this guy is going anywhere." Thalia stopped aiming at the guy (for he _was_ a guy), but kept the arrow nocked. Percy and Annabeth helped the guy to the fire, and Thalia recognized the kid as the comedian from District 5. Thalia remembered with guilt that she had shot off his partner's ear. It appeared the poor kid had been roughed up pretty badly, then was left stranded in the desert with no water. He had turned delirious.

"Wh-Who are y-you people? Wh-what d'you w-want w-with me? Water…" Percy glanced at Annabeth, concerned for the kid's state of mind. However, first things first; Water. Percy passed one of the canteens to this kid, who began downing it so fast Percy was worried he would drown. He stopped soon, though, and lay panting on the ground. Annabeth asked the question on everybody's mind.

"What happened to you?" The boy, though not delirious anymore, was incoherent. However, key words popped up every now and then.

"Careers…Painful…No! NO...Stranded…left for dead…water…must have water…"

As far as Percy could tell, he had been captured and tortured painfully by the Careers, then stranded in the desert with no water, left for dead. Suddenly, another outburst.

"Plan! They…have…a plan…ambush…largest threat…dawn raid…"

_That doesn't sound too good, _thought Percy. It sounded like the Careers were planning to attack someone. Thequestion is: Who

**Ahhhhh. I. Feel. Complete. So. Review, please. Without them, I shrivel up and die a painful death of dereviewization. **

**OH yeah, and for the record: I was wrong in previous chapters. The Career group is:**

**District 2, District 6, Boy from 1, Boy from 9**

** (I'm not stopping any time soon) Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review Review **


	13. Chapter 13

**I don't know what's gotten into me lately, but here is chapter 13, right off the press. To Paul: Patience, young Padawan. To Athena1234: You just wait and see…. Ah, yes: A moment of silence for the victims and family members of the Colorado Movie Theater shooting. It could have happened to anyone. May they rest in peace. Ah yes: Annabeth POV alert.**

By Percy's reckoning, there were three hours left until sun up. After the whole "delusional refugee" situation had been resolved, Percy's turn to guard had come up. Thalia was using her Hunter training to get as much sleep as possible, Annabeth was sleeping normally, and Nicholas (from District 5) was fitfully tossing and turning. Percy had not told anyone about this, but he was suspicious of Nicholas; after all, hadn't the District 5 girl in the book been the most intelligent and treacherous in the Games? But Percy concentrated on his guard duty; his boring, tedious, mind-numbing guard duty… _No,_ thought Percy. _I can't think like that. This is a vital job, and I have to carry out like a man._ Percy needed a way for his friends to wake up quickly if they couldn't hear him yell, so he rigged up what he called "The Sea God's wake-up call Deluxe". He took two fragments of a plastic sheet, filled them with water and a hand-written note, then sealed it up with tape, after which he places the boxes near his friend's faces. When activated, the "bomb" would drench his friend's faces, waking them up immediately. They would then see a note (waterproof, of course), telling them to prepare for an imminent attack. Looking at his watch, he realized that he had already spent 45 minutes on his arts and crafts project.

An hour and 15 minutes passed by without incident. It seemed that the Careers had no luck in finding targets this night. Suddenly… _Thump._ Percy jumped up, startled. It had sounded like a footstep on one of the dunes. Grabbing his conventional sword, Percy stood. Grabbing a flashlight, he went up to the dune.

**[Sidebar: This is a bad move on Percy's part; he should have woken up his companions immediately, and brought his night vision infrared glasses with him.]**

Advancing to the top of the dune, Percy looked around, trying to discern a tangible shape in the all-encompassing darkness. Sighing, he turned on the flashlight and saw…nothing. _I must've imagined it, _thought Percy. He turned off the flashlight and started walking down the dune. _Thump._ Percy paused, then checked the dune again, this time carefully combing the dune with his flashlight, with no luck. 5 minutes later, just as he was about to give up, _Thump. _There it was again, and it sounded like it came no more than 3 feet from where Percy was standing! He turned around suddenly, to catch his tormentor off-guard, and…nothing. Frustrated, Percy looked all over the dune once again. For almost an hour, Percy went all over the dune, trying to discern the source of his frustration. 5 minutes before dawn, Percy gave up. Seeing that not a lot of time was left till dawn, he could sit at the top of the dune overlooking the camp, see when the sun came up, then turn around and see whoever was making the Most-Annoying-Sound-In-The-World.

Percy walked up to the top of the hill, tired. The guard shift that was just before dawn was always the worst, since you couldn't catch up on lost sleep, and you had to run around for the entire day exhausted. Sitting down in front of the peaceful camp, Percy enjoyed the view for awhile. And that, of course, was when he was tackled.

His attacker was tough, bringing their short spear to bear while holding Percy in a headlock. Percy struggled ferociously, desperate not to get pinned down. The Achilles curse would protect Percy if his attacker tries to kill him, but if stabbed to many times without so much as a drop of blood, _everybody_, not only the Gamemakers, would get suspicious. At the bottom of the dune, Percy almost got his sword to bear- then got stopped by a knife at one of his kidneys. He froze up, knowing that this fight goes to his mysterious opponent, whoever they were. That question was answered five seconds later, when a sultry, seductive voice whispered "Why, hello, Percy. Why are you up so late?"

Serena. Crap. _I hope she just tries to kill me now,_ wished Percy. No such luck.

"What am I going to do with you, Percy? I don't _want_ to kill you; you're too…_Yummilicious." _ She said that last part with relish, which chilled Percy to the bone.

"Uhhhhh, let me go, and pretend this never happened?" Serena laughed, a high-pitched, boisterous laugh that Percy would wake his companions. The silence that followed dashed Percy's hopes.

"Ahhh, very funny, Percy. Maybe I should keep you as a pet after killing your friends…" Percy tuned out her seductive threats, and focused on escaping. Serena was dragging him up to the dune, as Percy caught a sentence that ended with "… Seeing your buddies die in front of you." A thought hit Percy when he realized that he had been watching this dune at sunset yesterday. If this dune represented West, then the opposite dune represented East, with sunup only 2 minutes and 30 seconds away. A plan was hatched in the back of his mind. At the _front_ of his mind, he had already found out the Career attack plan, and how to thwart it. The plan was simple and foolproof, if your enemy is caught off-guard. A dawn raid, two or three slit throats, three dangerous enemies dead. Add a Sea God's wake-up call Deluxe, and that complicates matters. Serena finished dragging Percy up the dune, and stood him up, facing the encampment. Percy had not activated the Deluxe yet, since Serena would have panicked and attempted to skewer him if his friends suddenly woke up, and that would lead to complicated questions. Percy had been mentally counting down, and by his reckoning, there were 10 seconds left to sunset. For seven seconds, he saw the velvety Night, ready to turn into the rosy Dawn. He heard the heavy breathing of his captor and the noises of a desert at night. He closed his eyes, aware that if the plan went awry and Serena did not let go, he might not make it through the next twenty seconds, on account of Gamemaker intervention. He could survive a blade through the heart, but not a smart bomb sent from above, fearful of the Boy-Who-Wouldn't-Die.

3.

2.

1.

Percy, even though he had his eyes closed, was aware of a ray of light trying to pierce his eyelid, to blind him. He felt like a fox in his den, hiding from the hungry badger trying to dig into his hideaway. He felt Serena's grip loosen, and felt the knife at his kidney fall away as Serena shielded her eyes.

Big Mistake.

Percy elbowed her in the stomach, then kicked her in the knee. She fell away, cursing. Percy took the quick the respite to reach with his mind to the Sea God Deluxe, making a big deal of rustling through his pack as though searching for a detonator. Percy felt the water explode outward half a second before he saw it. It was all he needed to know to dive after Serena, Riptide extended. Before Percy's deadly arc of a sword completed its maneuver, Serena dodged. Riptide's hilt hit her in the forehead, knocking her out instantly. Percy heard a dull _thunk_ing noise behind him, and, turning around, saw the District 6 girl kneeling, 12 feet away, a Dark Age crossbow cocked and loaded aimed at his unprotected chest. The quarrel would speed at his chest at more than 200 MPH. Fired at point-blank range like this, it would tear right through Percy, and go another good 200 feet. Achilles curse or no, Percy would die. Pretending to reach for his pack for his shield, he pressed the button on his watch. With a _schliiik, _the shield popped out of the watch. Not a half second later, a quarrel fell to the ground with a dull _thunk._ Percy lunged forward, hitting the girl in the same place where he hit Serena. She fell to the ground with a surprised expression on her face. Percy looked down at his two opponents, lying prone on the ground. _Should I kill them now?_ He thought. Killing them both would remove two potential threats to him and his team. But he couldn't; not in cold blood like that. With a sigh, he sheathed Riptide and put away his shield, sprinting towards the tomb complex's roof.

**Annabeth POV:**

Annabeth woke with a start as a wave of lukewarm water hit her face. At first thinking it was one of Percy's pranks, she yelled out "Real funny, Seaweed Brain!", at the same time that Thalia yelled out "Hey!". Then, they both saw the note in the remains of what looked like a plastic bag. It read:

_Incoming Enemies. Prepare for imminent attack, wake Nicholas._

_-Percy_

Annabeth immediately grabbed her staff, and poked Nicholas with it, hard. Thalia stringed her bow, and drew an arrow. Nicholas stood up with a knife in backhand position, ready to skewer anyone who came near.

Annabeth tossed him a spear, which he deftly caught.

"Use this," was all she said, then turned to Thalia, who was scanning the horizon for enemies.

Suddenly, four shadowy figures appeared over the dune, then charged down the sandy hill, yelling a wild battle cry.

_Shit._ There was only time for one obscenity, and then the enemy was upon them.

**Percy POV**

The temple roof was peppered with holes, some no larger than a pinhead, others as big as a bus. And Percy needed to get past all of them. He could hear the sound of combat, around 300 feet ahead. He picked up the pace. He had practiced landing from large heights. If he got enough distance from the roof, he could turn the tide of the melee to the home teams favor. A couple of flips would probably be enough. 30 feet… 20 feet… 10 feet… Percy reached the ledge- and jumped up, tumbling forward to begin his flip. Once, twice, thrice, _four _times did he flip. He landed 30 feet from the temple steps. Turning around, he saw the knot of flailing limbs that was the fight. He dashed forward, and saw the District 9 girl raise her spear to strike at Annabeth's unprotected back. Percy drew Riptide, and in one fluid movement, cut off the girls arm at the elbow. As the girl stared at the stump in disbelief, he stabbed her through the heart, then withdrew his blade, the tip pinked with the girl's blood. She fell with a sigh, as though fainting. A cannon sounded as Percy stared at her dead body. _I can't dwell on this,_ he thought, then turned away. After a quick skirmish with the rest of the Careers, Percy being careful not to do any permanent damage, he heard Serena call "Fall back! They're too strong! RETREAT!" The Careers immediately sprinted towards the northern dune, and vanished over the edge. Just when Percy thought it was over, a spear flew out from behind the dune, looking for all the world like a bird. Percy heard the sound of metal hitting flesh, the muffled grunt of surprise of being hit, followed by the roar of pain as the sensors of the skin made their report to the Central Nervous System. But Percy was too busy sprinting towards the upright, slightly bloody spear, yelling in grief, aware that one of his friends had just been dealt what could only be a fatal injury.

**Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, who got hit? Will they survive? Input your guess in reviews! BTW I is going to China soon, might be able to make new chapter before the trip, might not. Bye, and thanks for listening to some guy rambling about Post-Apocalyptic alternate universes!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Hello Yello! (Have I used that greeting before?) Chapter 14! Oh yeah, and, for the record, the boy from 3 is dead, not the girl from 9. Boy from 9 still alive, but not part of Career group. Oh yeah, a note: I have some Binary in this chapter. If it doesn't get through; sorry!**

Percy ran towards the injured person, looking desperately to see who it was. He saw Annabeth's silky blond hair, and breathed a guilty sigh of relief, happy that his girlfriend was still safe, then saw Thalia's spiky black hair. Then that must mean that…

He was right. Nicholas was on the ground, his face smeared with dust. A bloodied knife, held by an equally soiled hand, was at his side. The spear stuck up from his stomach, moving in time with Nicholas' ragged and irregular breathing, like a column, commemorating Percy's inability to protect anyone. Percy silently swore that he would kill the person who had thrown the spear. Percy heard a rasping noise, like a stone being swallowed by someone with a cough. Then he realized it was Nicholas.  
>"Percy," he said, in his raspy voice. "Come closer." Percy kneeled down, trying to catch the dying man's last words-for Percy felt that the 15-year old before him was worthy of the title that he would never be able to experience.<p>

"Percy, even though I was never conscious enough to get to know you, I know that you're a good guy. No one else would have taken a stray like me in like that. But you did. That trust-_that's_ what's stopping me from screaming bloody murder for this. Thank you." A series of coughs racked Nicholas as Percy guiltily thought of how he hadn't trusted the guy when he had come. Nicholas recovered, weakened by the loss of blood these coughs had caused

"I just need you-" Another series of coughs, this time with more blood, came out as his stomach tried, in vain, to expel the foreign material inside of it. Nicholas forged on, regardless.

"I just need you to know something. My district partner, Rita, knows that I set out to find you guys. What she _doesn't_ know is that I got captured by those jackasses back there-" At this, he spat on the ground in disgust. "and that you found me, promptly to be bushwhacked the following day by the same bunglers." He had to pause, for another series of coughs racked his body.

"My point is," he continued doggedly, "is that she doesn't know that _they_ killed me, not you. When my ugly mug goes up into the sky tonight," he grimaced at that, then seemed at peace. "Well, she'll think you responded with a less-than-friendly attitude than was expected." Percy smiled weakly at the feeble joke. "So I want you to have this," said the boy, seeming to draw an object out of a non-existent back pocket. It was a piece of paper money, with the number "5" on it, and an image of President Snow. He would have looked very majestic, noble and confident- if he hadn't also had the Devil's horns, a goatee, and a mustache. Percy cracked up. He was alarmed to hear that there was a note of hysteria in his laugh, and he struggled to control it. Nicholas sighed, seemingly content.

"That one never fails to crack people up. Anyways, I told Rita that anyone who showed her this was a friend, and should not be attacked." Percy thought of a problem there, but before he could point it out, Annabeth beat him to it.

"But, Nick- Can I call you Nick? Anyway, we could have tortured you, and gotten the bill away from you, _then_ killed you. Or we could have searched you and found it in one of your pockets." At this, Nicholas flashed a bloody smile, followed by another series of coughs.

"I only ever told her, Blondie. Besides, I hid it somewhere where no decent being would dare check," he answered, a devilish grin on his face. Annabeth rolled her eyes, but finished with a "Good point". Nicholas turned back towards Percy, his smile fading fast, a small glint of fear in his eyes.

"Would you do that for me Percy? You two are the only ones I like in these games- No offense, Blondie, or you, Goth Girl." They accepted the questioning of their trustworthiness with terse nods. "I don't want you two at each other's throats. You need those for breathing!" He gave a weak laugh at that, his eyes glazing over.

"And now, Ladies and Germs, for my Greatest Joke of All," he whispered, and passed away with a smile on his face. A cannon boomed in the distance, followed by a muffled cheer, around a half-mile distant.

Percy stared at the corpse before him, aware that five minutes ago he had been alive and breathing.

"I guess that's the point of the Hunger Games," Percy muttered out loud. "You make friends, and then the Capitol takes them away." He stood up, then turned away. He looked at his friends.

"Let's pack up, now. The Careers could be back any minute now." Immediately, they all began cleaning up the site, trying to leave no traces. Annabeth had finished early, and, bored, she went into the old tomb complex. Inside, she found many empty, unfurnished rooms. At the very end of the complex, she found two rooms blocked off. She called Percy and Thalia to come and see, for she couldn't open the door by herself. Both came running, worried that she had been attacked. When Annabeth showed them the real reason for calling them, Percy sighed and Thalia said, a bit irritated, "Annabeth, the next time you yell bloody murder in a tomb in the middle of a death arena, _PLEASE_ do so only if you're being attacked by zombies." Annabeth rolled her eyes and ignored them.

"These doors _look_ like stone, but they're actually Titanium alloy mixed with pure Tungsten. Built to be easily opened and closed, but nearly impossible to break through."

Percy and Thalia looked at the doors with a newfound interest.

"Hmmmmm. I wonder what's behind them that the Capitol wants kept a secret?" mused Thalia.

But try as they might, the threesome couldn't open the doors. Soon, they moved to more interesting things: the mysterious hieroglyphs on the wall. Annabeth examined it for a minute or so, even running her finger over the writing. She proclaimed the writing to be Ancient Egyptian pictograms. After having uncovered the language, she took a small piece of rubble, and began writing on the floor, occasionally looking up to compare with the wall. Finally, she stopped, and frowned. Percy looked over her shoulder, and was puzzled by his findings. It read:

01010000 01110010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01100111 01100001 01110100 01101001 01110110 01100101 0111010 0100000 01000001 01110100 0100000 0111001 0110000 0110000 0100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 0100000 01100001 01100110 01110100 01100101 01110010 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01101001 01101110 01101001 01110100 01101001 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 0100000 01101111 01100110 0100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 0100000 01100011 01111001 01100011 01101100 01100101 0101100 0100000 01000111 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110111 01100001 01111001 01110011 0100000 01000001 01101100 01110000 01101000 01100001 0101100 0100000 01000010 01100101 01110100 01100001 0100000 01110100 01101111 0100000 01100010 01100101 0100000 01101111 01110000 01100101 01101110 01100101 01100100 0101110 0100000 0110010 0110000 0110000 0100000 01110010 01100101 01100010 01101111 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100100 0100000 01100110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 0100000 01110110 01101001 01110010 01110101 01110011 01100101 01110011 0100000 01110100 01101111 0100000 01100010 01100101 0100000 01110010 01100101 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 01100100 0100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 0100000 01101100 01101111 01100011 01100001 01101100 0100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100001 0101110 0100000 01010010 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 0111010 0100000 0110001 0110000 0110000 0100000 01100110 01101111 01101111 01110100 0100000 01110010 01100001 01100100 01101001 01110101 01110011 0100000 01101111 01100110 0100000 01001101 01100001 01101001 01101110 0100000 01010100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 0101110 0100000 01010000 01110101 01110010 01110000 01101111 01110011 01100101 0111010 01010101 01101110 01101011 01101110

**[Guys-Before you go on the internet translating the Binary, don't fret! It'll be translated soon!]**

Annabeth frowned in confusion.

"This…this is Binary. Computer language. But… what's it doing in the middle of an Egyptian tomb?" Percy thought about it, and then remembered that they were not _actually _in an Indiana Jones movie.

"Annabeth, remember that we're in a giant death arena, where everything is built to kill us in painful, humiliating, and creative ways. Not a dig in Northern Egypt, looking for Cleopatra's tomb. Most likely, some lazy Capitol tech guy let the computer put the figures on the wall. It just put its current conversation on the wall." Annabeth just stood there, too concentrated to hear what he had said.

"Crap, I wish I'd paid more attention in Binary class," she muttered. Percy patted her on the shoulder, then looked at the other walls.

"Annabeth! There's more writing on the other walls!" This reanimated his girlfriend, who immediately worked on translating. They came up with 2 individual pieces:

01000001 01110101 01100111 01110101 01110011 01110100 0100000 0111001 0111010 0100000 01000110 01101001 01110010 01100101 01110111 01100001 01101100 01101100 0100000 0110111 0100000 01000100 01100101 01101100 01110100 01100001 0100000 01110011 01100101 01110100 0100000 01110101 01110000 0101110 0100000 01001101 01100001 01101001 01101110 0100000 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01100010 01101100 01100101 0100000 01101110 01101111 01110111 0100000 01101001 01101110 01110110 01110101 01101100 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100001 01100010 01101100 01100101 0100000 01100001 01100111 01100001 01101001 01101110 01110011 01110100 0100000 01010100 01001000 0100000 01110110 01101001 01110010 01110101 01110011 01100101 01110011 0101110

And:

01001101 01100001 01101001 01101110 0100000 01010100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 0100000 01110100 01101111 0100000 01010010 01100101 01100011 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01100001 01101100 0100000 01000011 01101111 01101101 01100001 01100010 01110100 0100000 01000001 01110010 01100101 01101110 01100001 0100000 01010100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 0100000 0110100 0101110 01101 01010 01101 01010 01010001 01110101 01100101 01110010 01111001 0111010 0100000 01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 0100000 01101001 01110011 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01010000 01110101 01110010 01110000 01101111 01110011 01100101 0100000 01101111 01100110 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01010010 01100101 01100010 01101111 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100100 0100000 01010110 01101001 01110010 01110101 01110011 01100101 01110011 0100000 01101111 01100110 0100000 01010011 01100101 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 0100000 0110111 01000011 0111111 01101 01010 01101 01010 01010010 01100101 01110011 01110000 01101111 01101110 01110011 01100101 0111010 0100000 01010100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01010000 01110101 01110010 01110000 01101111 01110011 01100101 0100000 01101111 01100110 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110011 01100101 0100000 01010110 01101001 01110010 01110101 01110011 01100101 01110011 0100000 01101001 01110011 0100000 01110100 01101111 0100000 01110011 01101000 01110101 01110100 0100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 0100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 0100000 01100110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 0100000 01101001 01101110 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100001 0101110 0100000 01010000 01100101 01110010 01101101 01100001 01101110 01100101 01101110 01110100 01101100 01111001 0101110 0100000 01001110 01101111 0100000 01101000 01100001 01110010 01101101 0100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 0100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01100101 0100000 01110100 01101111 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01101101 01100001 01101001 01101110 0100000 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 0100000 01101001 01101110 0100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 0100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 0101110

Annabeth stared down at the numbers, despairing once more. After a long, uncomfortable silence, Percy suggested that they finish packing. Annabeth had to accede that this was getting them nowhere. She took pictures of the Binary Translations with her phone, then went outside and finished packing. 5 minutes later, she was still staring at the pictures, occasionally writing unreadable symbols in the sand next to her, trying to break the code. Percy was just about to call for them to move out, and make for the Parthenon look-alike around 2 miles distant, when a strange noise sounded from the tomb. It sounded like a huge closet door slowly rumbling open, letting a giant pile of shoes fall out. Thalia immediately drew her bow and extracted an arrow from her quiver, aiming it at the tomb. Percy drew his magic sword-pen, Riptide from his pocket, already in combat mode. Annabeth, at the same time, rather than preparing for an incoming attack, jumped up in the air, shrieking with joy. After she had calmed down, she looked around in confusion, noticing Thalia and Percy's unnatural attention with the tomb. She paled when she heard the noises emanating, which now sounded like the groans of someone recently woken up. She grabbed her spear and shield, but rather than putting herself in a defensive position, she ran over to Thalia, grabbing her by the shoulder and shaking her back and forth in excitement.

"Thalia! Thalia! Guess what? Guess what? I BROKE THE CODE!" Thalia looked over her shoulder, her bow still aimed at the main Tomb entrance.

"Safety tip, Annabeth: Don't jiggle me when I'm aiming a loaded bow. That happened to one of my Hunters once." Thalia shook her head. "Poor Denise; she won't get that eyebrow fixed any time soon." Annabeth stopped shaking her but kept the goofy smile on her face.

"It's really weird though- the conversation sounds almost as though the computer is imitating a robot." Thalia rolled her eyes at this statement.

"Annabeth, you may be really, really smart, and really, really wise, but I honestly doubt that there is a drop of common sense in you. Why? Because a talking computer _is _a robot." Annabeth blushed at this, but continued on regardless. Thalia was puzzled at this; Annabeth never passed up the opportunity to return a zinger.

"Anyways, it's really strange. Here's what the first sequence says:

_Prerogative: At 900 seconds after the initiation of second cycle, Gateways Alpha, Beta to be opened. 200 rebooted flesh viruses to be released into local area. Range: 100 foot radius of Main Terminal. Purpose: Unkn…_

Then it fades away. The second sequence says:

_August 9: Firewall 7 Delta set up. Main terminal now invulnerable against TH viruses._

This is inconsequential, most likely a standard maintenance update. The TH stands for 'Trojan Horse'. The final sequence says:

_Main Terminal to Recreational Combat Arena Terminal 4._

_Query: What is the Purpose of the Rebooted Viruses of Sector 7C?_

_Response: The Purpose of these Viruses is to shut down any flesh in the area. Permanently. No harm will come to the main terminal in the process."_

Annabeth stopped excitedly and looked at Thalia with eager expectance. Thalia stared back with a blank face. Annabeth sighed theatrically, then excitedly launched herself into Smarty-Pants-Lecture Mode.

"The interesting sections are the first and last ones; the second one is meaningless, a standard maintenance update. However, the first one is saying that around 15 minutes after sunrise of the second day in the arena (that's what 'initiation of second cycle' means), 200 'rebooted flesh viruses' will be unleashed in the 100 ft. radius. I don't know what flesh viruses are, but nothing good, I assume. Then it trails off, but I think the computer was trying to say 'Unknown'. Now that's interesting; it was so classified even the Central Terminal doesn't know what they do.

"The third conversation clears that question up. Since it says-" Thalia's eyes, which had been incomprehensive for the entire first part, finally lit up in understanding.

"It's the Central Termithingy asking another computer, who apparently knows what these flesh viruses do. The answer is computer talk for 'Kill every idiot still in range when the viruses get out.' Then the other computer reassures its buddy that he won't come to any harm." Annabeth nodded in approval.

"Nice thought process, Thalia- there may be hope for you yet!" Thalia waved the compliment/barb away.

"My question is: what are these 'flesh viruses' anyway?" Annabeth shook her head in puzzlement.

"I don't know, Thalia. I just don't-"

And that, of course, was when Percy shouted

"MUTTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSS!"

**Hello to all of you Hunger Games Maniacs! Anyways, I've just realized this: The Hunger Games has a lot in common with American Idol. Not the killing part, of course, but other factors:**

**In the first round of both of the shows, around half of the contestants are removed. **

**The host of both shows has been around for as long as anyone can remember.**

**Both shows are highly popular competitions that take in contestants from around the country.**

**Both shows have the potential to crush dreams and wrench apart friendships.**

**Now, I'm not saying that I don't like American Idol, but both shows are eerily similar. Thank you for reading my story! Please Review below! Oh yeah: and feel free to tell me who your favorite character in the story is so far!**


	15. Chapter 15

**Sorry, but school just started, and I had to run around like a headless chicken to get everything done. Enjoy!**

**I think I haven't published since summer...**

Percy stared at the mutts, horrified. He had overheard some of the conversation that had passed between Thalia and Annabeth, and the one word that had caught his attention was 'flesh viruses'. He now understood what those were, and what they did.

They were hideous, and the rags that covered them did nothing to hide their oozing wounds, or the horrible smell of rotting flesh. Percy had thought that, in the occasion that this style of apocalypse catching him unawares, he would calmly take his trusty shotgun out, grab all of his friends, and head to the secret government base where the cure was being developed. But he knew that that was not going to happen. Despite all of his years of fighting the hordes of Hell and Heaven, mouthing off ancient deities, and going out with one of the smartest/scariest girls in camp, Percy was just about ready to wet himself.

Percy was afraid.

"M-m-m-mutts!" He stammered again. _The mutts-they're zombies!_ He thought in horror. Even though they weren't exactly moaning "BRAINS…" they were still shuffling around, communicating through grunts and unintelligible moans. They had found Nicholas near the temple steps, and were eagerly sniffing him. Soon, they would smell the warm flesh nearby, and head towards them… and then they would feast. Another of the words that Percy had heard was "200", and he knew that they, despite being the demigod children of some of the most powerful beings in creation, could not take down this zombie horde. Percy started groping around for his baseball bat and shotgun- then realized that he didn't have either of those available, and that he wasn't in his room playing COD, calmly fighting off the zombie hordes.

Thalia had quickly realized that these… _things_ were a threat, so she quickly knocked an arrow to the bow, and snapped off a shot, hoping against hope that the arrow would not confirm her fears.

_Thunk._

It did. The arrows impact on the skull released a trickle of blood, clearly lacking oxidized blood cells. The zombies were not robotic manifestations of the undead, programmed to walk around like that, detect any heat sources, ad "eat" them- they were actual, honest-to-god reanimated corpses, with a taste for flesh that was probably induced by Capitol interference, and that chilled all three of the demigods to the bone. Percy almost lost his nerve then and there, and for a second he was seriously tempted to simply take off as fast as he could in the opposite direction, and never look back. But he steeled his nerves, and yelled:

"Guys! Remember, back at camp, when all those Ares kids charged us and we held them off?" Thalia nodded reluctantly, still staring at her arrow in the zombies head. Annabeth made no sound, and when Percy turned around to look at her, she was as pale as a sheet. Percy turned towards the zombies, and froze. The zombies had all stopped shuffling around aimlessly, their blind eyes glazed over, and their noses sniffing. They were all staring at the group. The arrow Thalia had shot had been sniffed by the zombie she had hit, and they saw that same zombie now, silently pointing at them. Both sides stared at each other (although, in all honesty, most of the zombies didn't have eyes) in a tense silence. Then one of the zombies roared- a roar, not of anger, fear, or hate, but the most primordial sound of all: a roar of hunger. At this, the silence was shattered by other roars, and the zombies charged. Moving quicker than the undead actually should, they loped towards the demigods at a quick velocity. The charge was intended to intimidate the prey, make them freeze up with fear. Then, the wave of zombies would knock them to the ground, and after that they stood no chance. In all honesty, the tactics of the horde reminded Percy less of standard zombie behavior, and more of a wolf pack, hunting something in the cold, arctic tundra. However, Percy Jackson and the people he was friends with were anything but frightened deer. The trick Percy was talking about was when, around two weeks ago, in the real world, all of the Ares campers had charged them while they had been on guard duty for Capture The Flag (It had taken a lot of wheedling, blackmail, begging, and fake crying to convince Annabeth to give the command to someone else). The threesome had immediately formed a shield wall, to hold back the opposition. They held off the Ares campers by never retreating, never advancing and always sticking together.

In the Hunger Games, they did the same. Thalia put away her bow and formed a left flank with Aegis and her spear. Annabeth sprinted and formed a center with her Hunger Games- issue shield, and her spear poking out from behind her. Percy then joined Annabeth, and completed the wall just in time. The initial wave of zombies slammed into the shield wall, expecting easy meat n seconds- and were only met by cold iron and steel. Slowly, and breaking one of the most important rues of the shield wall, they retreated towards their bags, prodding any zombie that approached. Thalia sometimes only had to move Aegis in a threatening manner, and some of the zombie line would flinch, moaning and grumbling all the while.

But in the end, it didn't really matter that they'd put up a fight. They had defeated (which is to say, they had completely incapacitated to the point of little/no movement) very few of the zombie horde, and still more were pouring out of the ruins. A quick estimate from Percy told him that a hundred zombies had already left the temple, which left a little less than _another_ hundred zombies still to pour out from the temple. His little band of adventurers had put up a valiant fight, but in the end they would be defeated.

This acknowledgment gave Percy an unexpected amount of despair, and almost a loss of will to live. He did not know why, and that confused him. But then, he had soon realized the reason.

In all of his four years as an active, fighting demigod, Percy had run away from a fight only three times. The first time, he had been only twelve years old, with Chimera poison coursing through his veins, a hole in the floor straight to the Mississippi, and two monsters cornering him. There had been no back up. The second time, he was thirteen years old, with an angry Cyclops throwing boulders at him, and Annabeth almost mortally injured. The last time he had done so had been last year; he was about to turn fifteen years old, and had been scouting out the labyrinth. He had run away from an enormous monster army that had been pretty pissed about having their leader killed by Percy. All of the other times, Percy had faced his demons, and turned them into a pack of Insta-Monster powder. Percy at this moment knew that this would have to be the fourth time.

"Annabeth! Thalia! It's no use! There're too many of them! Our only option is to fall back!" They both grunted in ascent, and in unison, they began to shuffle backwards towards the bags. However, the monsters would have overwhelmed the three heroes if not for Thalia's quick thinking. She knew, deep down, that it was pointless; the zombie horde would simply charge, overwhelming the defenses, and eat everyone. Percy might survive, but Annabeth and herself would definitely _not_ make it. She was about to give up in despair when she spotted a crack on the temple roof. A crazy, wild, totally stupid yet awesome idea came to the front of her mind. Thalia had a plan. She yelled "Cover me!" to her companions, who, roundly cursing the world in general, quickly closed the gap.

_I just need a few seconds…_ She thought to herself grimly. Like every other time she had done this, she was aware that if her concentration wavered for even a half second, she would be cooked, steamed, and fried all at once. Before embarking on her most dangerous endeavor yet, she sent a quick prayer to her Father above. _Please Zeus… I know you don't like it when I do this, but it's the only way to save them…_ She heard an answering rumble, and knew she had his blessing.

"Hey Pinecone Head! If you're done grinning like an idiot, do what you're gonna do, and quick!" That was Percy, always the concise one. She concentrated on the heavens, attuning herself to the eddies and movement, searching for restless electrons to do her bidding, much as one would look for mercenaries to hire. She found them. Commanding them all with the piece of Zeus inside of her, she ordered them to strike the weakest looking part of the temple roof. She sensed the particles coalescing into a natural, deadly spear, which promptly sped down towards her. This was the hard part; if she didn't do it right, she would become the Thalia-Size Beef Dumpling that she had mentioned before. She closed her eyes, and in one swift movement thrust her spear upwards, meeting the fiery bolt of lightning just above her head. She willed the lightning to head towards the spot on the temple roof she had pointed out before, and the smell of metal disappeared, and for a half-second nothing could be heard. Then the ear-splitting _BOOOOOOOOOOM_ of thunder was followed by an almost as loud _THRAAAAAACCCK!_ when the lighting silently dispersed its almost unlimited energy into the not-so-stealthy roof. Thalia opened her eyes just in time to see the front of the temple collapse on the back row of zombies. Percy, despite being (emotionally) shocked to the core, quickly took the initiative, telling everyone to "grab their bags and get their asses moving". Thalia was the first to move, sprinting towards her bag, then began to set the pace by running away as fast as she could. Percy had to call Annabeth 3 times before she was revived from her stupefied state ("I _hate_ it when she summons lightning! It defies physics, and always shocks my scientific mind!") They both then followed Thalia's example, and dashed after her. The trio ran for around 10 minutes as fast as they could with the packs, until Percy decided to stop his companions by falling face-first into the dirt in front of him. Annabeth and Thalia, glad to have an opportunity to stop helped him up. As Percy and Annabeth rested (by which they lay on the now rocky dirt, wheezing like they were asthmatic fish on dry land) Thalia stood at the top of the dune with her eyes closed, hoping against hope that she would not see the sight she expected to see. _Please, please, any god that may be listening, please don't let there be a ravenous zombie horde of Apocalypse following us… _Then she turned around, and opened her eyes and looked at the horizon, half expecting to see a shuffling mob of zombies churning from behind the dunes. There was nothing.

At this, Thalia breathed a sigh of relief, and they had a relaxed water break. Then, they continued to trek up the hill, now safe in the knowledge that there was no zombie horde after them.

When they reached the top, Annabeth immediately knew where they were: the Parthenon.

"Or, at the very least, a very accurate replica of it," she explained, as she continued to talk about Doric and Ionic columns and their sturdiness. They set up camp and refilled their water bottles at the nearby fountain. Then, Percy called a meeting to discuss an important topic: Mutts. As the sun went down, and the stars went up, Percy and his band of adventurers talked.

"Well, I think it's clear what the mutts are based on." said Thalia. Annabeth was in deep thought, and took no notice of Thalia.

"What, then?" Said Percy, expecting an intelligent, well thought out response from his friend.

"Horror movies. There, I just blew your mind, didn't I?" Percy looked aghast at this theory, and was about to respond with his deluxe "Dripping with Sarcasm" voice, when Annabeth spoke up.

"Myths and legends." Thalia and Percy turned towards her, and thoughtful expressions came to them.

"I guess you're right. I mean, at least a cheesy version of myths and legends, because mummies are not supposed to rise from the dead except in horror films."

"Dammit Thalia, stop it with dumb 'Horror' film! It's just Myths and legends!" Then the arguing began, with Thalia trying to explain the fine points of her argument while Percy raged about how his friend watched too many horror films. Annabeth observed them with a peeved but slightly amused expression, as though they were two puppies in a scuffle. She was about to break them up when she saw smoke, and it wasn't from their fire.

**OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH! Guys, really sorry I haven't published recently, but it's been hectic (and I've been lazy). Bye now!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi! Here is Chapter 16! I have some interesting plot twists coming up…**

Annabeth crawled on her belly to the side of the fake Acropolis, and peered out, wondering what she would see, whose fire she would observe. She was not met by one, but three bright, flickering flames, that looked like candles in a light wind. The first flame had four or five figures around it, and the flame itself was huge, billowing smoke to be seen for miles. The second fire was a bit closer, and Annabeth could make out 4 figures huddled around the campfire to stave off the biting cold that now permeated the arena. The flame was more carefully tended, and much less smoke was in the air; however, anyone deliberately looking for smoke would spot their fire quickly. The last fire was tiny, and gave off no smoke at all- it gave off so little light that Annabeth almost missed the small, huddled figure that was rocking back and forth in front of the fire. Annabeth, after this quick analysis, call her two companions over in a hushed tone.

"Percy! Thalia! Over here! I think we've found some of our fellow tributes!" Percy and Thalia crawled over as well, careful not to make themselves visible to the tributes out in the open. Those tributes were most likely too far away and too tired to trek over to their hill and attack them, but they could all agree that revealing their position to the watchers in the night was a bit unwise. Thalia was the only one with the presence of mind to bring binoculars for the trio, and she distributed them without a single snide comment, which was strange for her, especially with Percy around. Annabeth grabbed the binoculars with a muttered "Thanks," and immediately turned her eyes toward the large flame.

The large flame had five people around it, all of them laughing, talking, eating, and joking around. A quick glance told her that these were the Careers- she could spot Serena's head facing away from her, the District Six girls wounded knee, and the giant bear of a District 2 Tribute. Annabeth felt a wave of utter dislike and disgust rise up against these kids- and then ruthlessly crushed it. She was fighting to save these people from the Capitol, and this hate would only complicate matters. Annabeth did not feel good about not hating that group. She may be trying to free these people as Percy had said, but that didn't mean she had to like them.

Out of idle curiosity, Annabeth had once taken lip-reading classes, simply to amuse herself (for Annabeth, that meant taking 7 classes more than was necessary). Percy reaction back then was to be utterly and totally confused. _What use is it to read lips in our world, Annabeth? It's not like monsters talk in ways we can understand!_ Annabeth remembered Percy's words very well, and gave a silent smirk as she began to gather intelligence on her enemies.

From what she could see, many of them were making rude jokes about the other tributes, even ones that were around the campfire now. However, every now and then, they would make a violent motion with their hands, and at that moment either the words Grace, Chase, and Jackson started bouncing around the campfire. Annabeths mouth curled into a grim smile. The group was eating the haunch of a large beast, tearing at it with relish, almost a gratifying fury. Annabeth vaguely wondered what beast they had brought down, the haunch being so big. But her mind could not concentrate on what was then a small detail, and she failed to take in the scratches and bruises on the Careers bodies, or the shapes just visible outside of the giant campfires light. She moved on to the next campfire.

After 5 seconds of mucking about in her hastily cobbled memories for the identities of these four tributes, it finally clicked for Annabeth. These were the District 7 and District 12 tributes. Annabeth vaguely remembered Percy dueling Jonathan in the Training Room, and his interviews from a few nights before. After appreciating the warm, fuzzy feeling that verbally bashing Serena on live television had given her, she dragged her ADHD charged brain back to the topic at hand. Her eyes raked over the campfire. The four teenagers were seriously discussing "moots"- Annabeth extracted herself briefly from her lip-reading mindset to puzzle over this expression. Maybe they were talking about moot points? Annabeth shook her head in confusion and continued snooping. The group was in the middle of a savannah, with only temperate grassland around them. They were clustered close around their mid-size fire, and kept looking over their shoulder with nervousness. They were slowly roasting several small animals that Annabeth could not identify, even with the high power binoculars. There was a small heap of unmoving black things similar to the animals on the cook fire a bit of a ways away from the foursome. Annabeth was not sure what exactly the correlation was between the animals on the cook fire and the animals in the heap, but the part of her brain that she instinctively had always known was Athena's had a raging headache, and she knew that if more evidence was found on this subject, that part of her mind would churn out a very logical and well thought conclusion. She uneasily moved her scopes from the quartet, and moved to the last fire, almost too small to distinguish from a star by the naked eye, and not much better seen through a pair of binoculars.

Next to the fire, she saw a small form, female by the looks of it. She was hugging her knees, and rocking back and forth in a behavior that reminded Annabeth of Dobby, from the Harry Potter series. Periodically, she would glance up at the stars, watching and waiting for something, probably the nightly death heraldry. As she glanced up, Annabeth gasped, for the girl they were spying on was missing an ear. Though Annabeth had been through many a campaign, and had seen worse than a lost ear, she was not prepared for the shock of seeing a stranger, alone and in trouble, lacking a body part. The girl reluctantly stopped stealing looks at the sky, and removed a piece of meat from the spit above the fire, and began to tear at it with gusto. Near the campfire, there was a scraggly tree that had a bunch of feathers all around it. Next to the tree, there was an irregular looking mound of _something_, something that Annabeth could not identify. The Athena brain started to go on overtime, trying to spot something, _anything _that would connect the dots for her, and make the headache go away. Feathers, plus black thing, plus-

"NO WAY!" Yelled Percy, interrupting Annabeth's train of thought. The blond turned to Percy in irritation, trying to control the urge to roll him down the cliff. Percy and Thalia didn't notice her look, though, and began to argue fiercely, something that is slightly difficult to do when you're whispering. Annabeth shimmied closer to the pair, trying to listen in unobtrusively.

"I'm telling you, it's not that, Percy! Where would she get it, anyways? It's not like there's a Pizza Hut in this world!" rebutted Thalia gruffly to one of Percy's points.

"It is so! I've had, like, a billion of those things in my life! If anyone would know, it'd be me." Stated Percy, with an obvious pride in his accomplishment.

"See? This proves all of my points that I've made to Annabeth. You live through your stomach! All men do. I remember this one time, when Luke spotted a KFC on the bus to Camp Half-Blood, and he made us all stop to eat the chicken. _**The chicken.**_ It's a simple fact of life that you guys only care about your stomach." Annabeth cocked her head in confusion, and decided that this was around the time to insert herself into the conversation.

"Ahem." Thalia and Percy stopped mid-argument to look at her with impatience. No matter how exasperated you are with Annabeth, you _never _ignore her. They had both learned that the hard way. Annabeth, satisfied, continued.

"So, hi. I'm Annabeth Chase, sixteen, and I would like to have the privilege to join in on this enlightening conversation on, apparently, Pizza Hut. Percy, please explain your comment now, because I feel as though my head is about to explode, and Thalia, I've heard your deliberations several times, and you still have not convinced me with your theory on boys and their gastric thought processes." Thalia grumbled at this, and pulled up her binoculars to observe the Careers, who were still impatient for the death count at midnight. Percy then glanced at the girl quickly, once, then turned back to Annabeth.

"Uh, Annabeth, I know this is gonna sound weird, but here it is. I think that the girl who's all alone is eating… Umm… I don't really know how to say it…" Percy hesitated. Annabeth, however, was not in the mood for one of Percy's derelict trains of thought, grumbled.

"Well? Spit it out!" Percy glared at Annabeth with mock hurt, his hesitation vanished.

"Okay, Okay, jeez, keep your pants on. Judging from the greasiness of the food that she's eating, and the enthusiasm of her munching, my professional conclusion as an expert in all matters culinary, I would say that she can only be eating one thing…" Percy paused for dramatic effect. Annabeth glared.

"Buffalo wings."

In that moment, Percy experienced the rare, but very enjoyable experience of seeing Annabeth with her mouth agape, staring at him with a flabbergasted expression.

"You know, if you keep your mouth open long enough, you'll eventually swallow a fly." Thalia snorted at that, continuing her vigilance over the plains below. Annabeth managed to recover some composure.

"Seriously, Percy? _Buffalo wings?_ How the hell did you get to _that_ conclusion?" And, in all honesty, Annabeth was curious about it. Her brain, which she had thought could not run any faster, had just shifted gears with that revelation that Percy had been so kind to inflict upon her. If his reasoning did not add up, Annabeth thought that her brain would explode. Percy, unaware of Annabeth's sudden headache, carried on regardless.

"See, I consider myself to be a learned man in the buffalo wing field, considering epic questions such as 'Are Chilies' buffalo wings better than Pizza Hut wings?' and 'Which dipping sauce is the spiciest?'. That girl by the fire is clearly eating that piece of meat using Gradnson's Grip, commonly used by amateurs. Gradnson himself eventually realized that, and founded the" Annabeth waved the rest of his comment away, and struggled to make sense of Percy's revelation.

"Percy, if you're messing with me, I swear, I'll-" What exactly Annabeth was going to do, Percy never learned, because at that moment, the Athena portion of her brain, frustrated by the lack of progress being made by the host body, decided to override the hosts brain functions, to dedicate all 100% of Annabeth's brainpower to solving this conundrum. In the recorded history of Camp Half-Blood, this had only occurred twice before: when George Washington was thinking of a new battle strategy to fight the British with, which later resulted with the attack on Trenton, and Albert Einstein, when he reached a particularly difficult point in a series of calculations that would later result in Einstein's Theory of Relativity. However, in all of the cases, the host body had struggled with their godly counterparts over the control of the body, and this time was no different. Annabeth reasoned, then raged, then tried to bash her way through the wall of thoughts marshaled to keep her out. As she desperately tried to seize control of her arms, she sensed that something momentous was happening. There was a string of some sort floating in the center of the thought fortress. Thousands of tiny lights flickered about it, almost transporting things to it. Annabeth zoomed in, and noticed that the string was only missing one portion of itself- if that portion were there, the string would make a full circle. Then, she noticed something floating nearer. She zoomed in even more, and realized that it was repeating itself, over and over again. A memory! The memory was tinged orange from her irritation with Percy at the time (in fact, as she looked at other memories, Annabeth noticed that most of them were tinged orange), but it was clearly the conversation they had just had on buffalo wings. As the memory floated closer to the string, one of the flickering lights noticed the memory, and snatched it, with the purpose of seeing if it would make a full circle. As the memory and the light neared the string, the string twitched in their direction, as though it was aware that it was almost complete. The millisecond the orange memory neared the string, the string sprang into action and leaped towards the memory. The two parts formed a whole in a spontaneous and blinding fashion, glowing white and making Annabeth's (internal) eyes turn away. As suddenly as it had happened, the immense pressure stopped. Once the godly portion of Annabeth's brain had figured out this particular conundrum, it immediately went dormant, and returned control of all bodily functions back to the host. In other words, once the mystery was solved, Annabeth stopped pulling her hair and collapsed on the ground breathing heavily and muttering invectives against her mother. Percy and Thalia stared at her, utterly bemused as to what had just happened. Finally, Percy nudged Annabeth and gently asked her to sit up. It was a novel experience for Percy asking for something politely from his friends, and Annabeth was so confused that she simply did what she was told. After muttering to herself for a few minutes, she stood up mutely, headed back to the fire, and began to eat the rest of her rations mutely, staring into the fire as she did so. Percy and Thalia, sensing that Annabeth wanted to be alone for a few minutes, sat together, pointing out the new and old constellations in the sky. Finally, Annabeth finished chewing, swallowed, and walked back to her friends. Percy and Thalia stopped their discussion involving whether or not Orion had grown a tail or not, and looked at her expectantly. Annabeth sighed, then began.

"Do any of you know how it feels to be mentally violated? All control of who you are, and what you want to be, wrenched from your control? Because I have. For a moment, I thought that I was going to lose my memory, or wake up, unable to breath, or walk, or talk. All because of buffalo wings." Annabeth stopped to breath, and for a moment, her friends were afraid that she had been seriously traumatized. But then, Annabeth sat up and grinned in tired way, and said:

"I solved the mystery, though." This simple statement created an outburst of congratulations, queries, and curiosity. And so, Annabeth began to explain what exactly she gone through so much pain for. But, as she was about to finish, the anthem began, the big screen went up, and all hell was set loose.

**Originally, this chapter was a lot longer, but then I found a point where I could end the chapter without drowning any readers. Guys, I'm really sorry that I haven't updated recently- I was simply lazy, and that's no excuse. However, I am hoping to publish a lot more now that it's summer, and see if I can finish this story. Am reading A Song Of Ice And Fire right now, or, to you couch taters, A Game Of Thrones. If any of you liked this chapter (or like Game Of Thrones), REVIEW PLEASE! Or, you could simply tell me what you're doing in summer! Enjoy!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi everyone, and welcome to the now slightly stale world of Percy Jackson and the Hunger Games! I hope that I'll be able to finish this up by the end of summer, because I have several other good ideas about newer topics… Anyways, enjoy!**

**[Before the Anthem]**

Annabeth paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts in silence. Percy and Thalia, familiar with Annabeth's mannerisms and habits, waited patiently for her to begin. They knew that an explanation would come- they simply had to wait for it. Finally, Annabeth took in a deep breath, and began.

"Guys, I think we have finally found proof about our suspicions of this arena. We suspected before that the arena's Mutts would be mythological in nature, but only the most basic mythologies like Greek, Roman, Egyptian, maybe Norse. But from what we've seen tonight, the guys who planned all this out really did their homework." Annabeth stopped, drank a bit of water, and continued.

"When we saw the Careers, they were eating something big, and we saw several other 'big' things outside of the campfire. They were near a forest as well, deciduous, similar in size to the Black Forest in Germany. And what were the biggest myths related to the Black Forest? Wolves. The Careers, at some point in the day, were attacked by a wolf pack, and the wolves looked huge, around the size of a Doberman. The Careers must have passed through those woods and run into the Mutts near the edge of the forest, and managed to fend them off. And, Percy, about your friends from Districts 12 and 7? They were roasting something small over the cook fire, with a lot more of those somethings nearby. They're in the middle of a grassland, which leads me to believe that they were attacked by something from the Native American Plains tribes, like from Sioux or Apache mythology. My bet is that they were attacked by a pack of rabid, oversized crows. Most likely, the crows weren't much of a challenge, given the fact that all four of them are still alive, but they still caused some trouble. And finally, the person who's all alone way back there, eating so-called 'buffalo wings'. Thalia, you don't believe Percy because you are inclined to believe that he makes stupid decisions. Although that _does_ happen quite a lot," At this, Percy grimaced in embarrassment as Thalia nodded smugly to herself, "In this case Percy is right. At least partially." Thalia's smug grin fell apart when she heard the words _Percy_ and _right_ in the same sentence, without the word _isn't_ in between. Annabeth continued stubbornly.

"The _point_ is, Percy saw a buffalo wing because it was the only thing close enough to the real thing that his brain could think of, so it showed him that. What _I_ saw after clearing away the Mist was different- the wing of a _ba_ bird." Percy and Annabeth stared at Annabeth with bemused expressions on their faces. Percy finally spoke up.

"A _what_ bird?" Annabeth rolled her eyes in disgust and began to explain.

"The _ba_ bird is the Egyptian equivalent of a ghost, except the ghost was in the form of a human-sized chicken-like bird, with the spirits head only. I can only assume that she was scared out of her wits when a chicken-man jumped out of the dunes or something and started attacking her." Thalia involuntarily grinned as she thought of her baby brother Jason with the body of a chicken.

"I don't know about you guys, but this makes me kind of nervous. Maybe we should-"

Annabeth's suggestion was drowned out by the blaring of trumpets. The sky lit up as the Capitol's seal blazed across the sky, illuminating the plain below them. Then, the images began to flash. The trio had participated in the death of all of the deaths that had occurred that day, and so were unsurprised when the faces of Nicholas and the girl from District 9 flashed across the sky in quick succession. However, they _were _curious to see how the other groups they had visibility of would react, and so when all three registered the first few bars of the anthem, they scrambled for their binoculars, each person looking at a different group through an unspoken consent, although Thalia and Percy temporarily jostled over who got to observe the Careers; Percy, in his stubbornness, refused to look away, and Thalia, relenting, looked at Jonathan's group. When Nicholas' face appeared in the sky, with the number five underneath it, the Careers had a look of confusion about them, until they recognized the guy that they had briefly fought against that morning. At that, Serena let out an almighty groan of frustration, and the other Careers looked mulish and disappointed, since it meant that everyone else from Districts 1 to 4 were safe. Jonathan and his companions, having never met Nicholas before, Thalia noted, looked happy for the fact that their de facto friends had survived another day, and that one more tribute had been removed from the proceedings. Annabeth had the most heartbreaking sight- the girl who had been sitting all alone in the center of the great waste had been staring at the screen with an intensity that Superman would envy, and a look of desperate hope that somehow conveyed the fact that she had already given up hope, and knew she would never regain it. When Nicholas' face faded away from the sky, the girls' cheeks became wet with tears as she unleashed her sorrow.

When the girl from District 9 appeared in the sky, the Careers looked away sullenly, reluctant to remember that morning's debacle that ended in her death, and manifold injuries. Jonathan, his male counterpart from District 7, and the girl from District 12 shared ecstatic grins at the good fortune that they'd had; _one of the Careers was dead! Yippee!_, their faces seemed to say. However, the girl from District 7 put those emotions on display, and actually stood up and cheered. What happened next was a tragedy.

Serena and her male companion, the only ones still looking at the sky, must have heard the cheer, Percy concluded later in the Games, as he hunted Mutts in the dark. Unsurprising, to say the least, given the fact that his friends had heard it all the way up in their campsite. Both Careers stood up, their eyes narrowed in suspicion, staring in the direction of the unknown sound. Percy zoomed in on their faces just in time to spot them look upwards with growing wonder at the faint trail of smoke imposed on the dark night sky. It wasn't _completely_ obvious, Percy recalled. In all likelihood, they wouldn't have spotted that fire at all, had not the District 7 girl inadvertently given them a clue as to their location. The smoke was faint enough so that you would think it were an illusion of the eye, if you didn't know what you were looking for, and where to look. Bu both pieces of information had been made available to the Careers, and what happened next could have ended a lot worse. Serena pointed out the smoke to her companions, who immediately agreed that they had to move _now_, if they were to have any chance at capitalizing on this mistake_._ After a quick discussion (and quicker match of rock paper scissors), the Career strike team began moving towards the District 12's fire in a quick but silent fashion. It was composed of Serena, Alexander, her District partner, the girl from District 6 with the wounded knee, who had apparently decided to provide cover fire with her crossbow, and the guy from District 1, who'd been hitting on Thalia before the Games. They were not exactly tiptoeing, but their walk was done in the same spirit; _Move as fast as you can without getting caught. _ Percy snapped out of his reverie of watching the preparations, and whispered frantically, "Guys! The Careers heard District Seven's yell, and now they're gonna bushwhack them!" Thalia then pointed out the fact that if they _did, _then there would be 4 less tributes to deal with by the end of the games. But Percy did not have the cold blood to deal with potential enemies that way, and he continued insisting on helping his friends. In the end, Thalia acquiesced, and a plan was hammered out by Annabeth. By that time, the Careers were a third of the way to the campfire. Thalia carried out Phase 1 of the plan, and started climbing the column nearest to their friends. Annabeth, meanwhile, scrawled a short but effective message warning the 4 allies of the impending threat. It went as such:

_To Jonathan and Company:_

_Careers are headed your way; four, and heavily armed. They possess element of surprise and the dark, my recommended action to you is to flee immediately. _

_Run, Jonathan. Run far away._

_Annabeth C. Percy J. Thalia G_

Annabeth tucked the message into one of Thalia's shoes, and threw it at her. Thalia caught her shoe deftly, removed the message, and secured it to the chosen arrow in a way that would not affect its flight path or aerodynamics. This was going to be a hell of a long shot, and she didn't want _anything_ to mess it up. After making sure that the message was secure, Thalia stood up on the column, and found her balance. Falling backwards was not a big deal, since she had been trained to land like a cat on falls larger than 10 feet. However, falling _forwards_, into the void that lay between the other fires and herself, would be a long, painful affair that would end in a serious injury that could incapacitate her for the rest of the Games. Once she found her balance, she ran a few numbers in her head to think up a trajectory, maximum velocity, and strength needed. Finally, she raised her bow 67˚ to the nearest tenth of a degree. She slowly pulled back her arrow, making sure not to pull so quickly, in order to build up its potential energy. She stopped tugging her bowstring just a few inches shy of her ear, and indulged herself in a small break, check where the Careers were. The girl from District 6, with the wounded leg, had already positioned herself a couple hundred feet back, to provide cover fire if necessary. The rest of the Careers were two-thirds of the way there, and their pace was increasing eagerly. The victims were not even aware that they were about to be ambushed, since they chatted as though they didn't have a care in the world. _We'll see how soon_ that _changes,_ Thalia thought grimly as she released the arrow. The arrow soared up, and quickly went out of sigh as it began to arc downwards towards the shot. Thalia had aimed to the nearest degree possible in order for the District Sevens and Twelves to be unable to discern from which direction the arrow came from, rendering tracking useless. The arrow landed just like Thalia intended, pointing straight up. Jonathan and company immediately stopped talking, and stared in confusion at the arrow in front of them. Curious and cautious at the same time, Jonathan edged forward (too slowly, for Percy's taste, given the fact that bloodthirsty Career Tributes were hunting him just a few hundred feet away). Jonathan removed the message from the arrow, and quickly read it, his eyes becoming alarmingly (and comically) large as he read the ominous warning. Percy breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that Jonathan had already explained the situation to his companions, who had begun packing up the camp. Percy was to tense to even breathe as he waited in agony for his friends to evacuate. Jonathan's last companion left the campfire just as Serena burst onto it, roaring a lusty battle cry. Percy grinned in relief, assuming that the entire episode was over.

It wasn't.

The wounded girl from District 6, tense from all the waiting around, and in pain from her leg, jumped a Serena's yell, and when she spotted four shadowy figures running away from the campfire, she did the only natural thing- she aimed her crossbow, and fired. The quarrel disappeared into the darkness. The girl jumped as she heard a soft _thump_, followed by a small groan and a sigh. A cannon fired in the night, heralding the death of another tribute. Percy put down his binoculars in shock, only aware of the words _failure_ bouncing around his skull.

**So, what do you think? I hoped you all liked it! Any ways, tell me who you thought just died. Was it Jonathan? Or one of his District Partners? Review, Review, Review!**


	18. Chapter 18

**I've been having some new ideas for stories that I think some of you may like…**

Percy stared numbly through his binoculars as the Careers began to search in the darkness for the person that got hit. He simply couldn't believe that despite all of their efforts, someone had still died. _Please don't let it be Jonathan,_ Percy thought spontaneously. That would be too much for him, and he would cry out, thereby revealing his position to the Careers. He watched in agony as the District 2 male and Serena left the glow of the campfire, to see whom- _or what,_ Percy thought hopefully, had hit. For a few tense minutes, nothing happened. Finally, Serena stepped into the firelight, blinking, with her District partner close behind. Alexander was carrying what looked like a sack of potatoes on his back. Then he threw it on the ground, revealing the fact that it was a guy, around 15 years old. Dead. Serena stared at him for a few seconds, then signaled for the rest of the strike team to get over there. Once they had all been gathered, Serena then turned over the dead man's body to reveal… the male from District 7. Percy inadvertently gave a sigh of relief, while at the same time felt guilty. He had worked very hard to make sure that that specific group of people survived, and now one of them was lying dead on the ground, surrounded by enemies. Suddenly, Annabeth began to speak.

"Hey, they've started talking. I think they're saying that it was too bad it wasn't District Twelve they'd killed. But now Serena is congratulating the girl with the wounded leg for such an excellent shot… she's saying how she's never seen anything like it, wounded and in the dark, with only sound to go by. Now the bear- I mean, guy from District 2 is saying that the dead guy perished how he lived, running away… now all of the Careers are laughing and making other jokes. Man, these guys are jerks." This was too much for Percy.

"Oh, really, Annabeth?" he said in a voice oozing with sarcasm. "You think that the people that just killed a guy with a crossbow like an animal, and are now making stupid jokes about his death, are jerks? Well, _that_ thought would've _never_ occurred to me." Annabeth sniffed in displeasure.

"There's no need to get all tetchy with me Percy. Besides," and at this, she gave a snuffle. "I'm, just as sad as you are." Percy's heart softened, and he and Annabeth cuddled up together for a few seconds, sharing each other's warmth. Then Thalia dropped down next to them.

"Right," she said crisply, sounding just like a drill sergeant from the movies. "After that sorry affair, I think we can all agree that staying in one place for too long is a bad idea. I say that we try and end the Career threat once and for all. We'll stalk them and collect food, and when they're in the right position, we'll pounce, and beat the crap out of them. Agreed?" Annabeth and Percy looked up, surprised, at the vehemence in Thalia's voice. For a few seconds, there was silence, and Thalia's stone-hard face showed no emotion, except for an unrelenting anger. Then, Percy cleared his throat, and said "Agreed". Annabeth imitated him, and then voiced the doubt that all of them, even Thalia, had.

"But we don't even know where the Careers are headed! How are we going to set up an ambush?" Annabeth's companions were saved the trouble of answering this question when the Career strike team finished their looting of the victim's corpse, and began to head back to their campfire. The trio put their discussion on hold, warily observing their enemies from afar. When the strike team made it, Serena said a few words to her companions, who then began to promptly pack up their gear. The trio observed with renewed interest as the Careers held a quick but vehement argument, with some of the group pointing one way, towards the savannah, and another group pointing another way, towards the jungle and the ziggurat. One of the Careers was even pointing back towards the Parthenon, where Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia were staying. This caused a moment of panic in Thalia, who thought that they'd been caught, and would soon have to either beat a hasty retreat, or mount a solid defense of the hilltop. However, the ziggurat Careers won out, and the troop began to move towards the pyramid in the distance. Thalia grinned at her companions when the Careers began to move.

"I think that we know our next target," Thalia said triumphantly.

After having packed up all of their gear, the trio moved out. First, they had to cross the savannah, which Annabeth stated that they would probably encounter mutts from both African mythology, and lore from the Plains tribes in the States. She was completely right. The first Mutt that they encountered was a herd of aggressive buffalo, around twice as large as any normal specimen. That night, they ate well on the meat of the Mutts. For a few more days, nothing happened except for two more deaths- District 10, apparently had been operating separately from each other, since they had died on different days. Then, they encountered more Mutts. The first group would have been fairly uninteresting to the heroes, if it hadn't been for the fact that the Mutts had been trying to kill them. They were extremely murderous crows, who tried to peck at and bare skin that was exposed. The trio took no chances, and cautiously eliminated the Mutts one by one, without taking any unnecessary risks. Later, Annabeth examined their beaks and claws, and confirmed the fact that they were both venomous. They managed to get almost three-quarters through the savannah after that, until they met the spider. According to Annabeth, the spider was supposed to be a representation of the African trickster god Anansi, who was known for his mischievous nature, and extremely spirited pranks. In this case, though, the pranks were anything but funny. The spider lived in a burrow, a labyrinthine series of underground passages and caves. The tunnels soon separated the trio, who promptly donned their night-vision glasses. They kept yelling out each other's names, but the spider (eerily similar to the Cyclopes, Annabeth had thought at the time) would also call out their names, but with different tones of voice. Annabeth realized that the Capitol had probably recorded their names during the meetings with their loved ones after the reaping, and then distorted the sound so that it would sound as though it were a matter of great urgency. Percy could vaguely recognize some of the voices, but they didn't impact him as strongly as Thalia, who stumbled, almost as though she had been hit, when Anansi spoke in her mother's voice. However, before Thalia could sprint headlong into a spider web in a Lord-of-the-Rings-esque style, Percy found the spider, a huge, bloated thing with 6 spider eyes, and a human head with the other 2 eyes. The thing (for Percy felt that it didn't deserve the title of spider) hissed and spat at Percy, and spoke with a dozen voices, each more hateful than the last, at him, telling him to stop, and hug the friendly spider, and go to sleep, for noting would hurt him here. Then Annabeth entered, and, in a complete disagreement with Percy, screamed "SPIDER!", and collapsed immediately. However, the Thing was so distracted by that sudden piercing shriek that Percy had the perfect opportunity to stab it between the eyes. The Thing feebly tried to attack Percy in its death throes, but Percy had already twisted his blade in to speed up the process, and stepped back. Once the spider had died, they waited for Thalia to come to them at the center of the warren, with Annabeth occasionally twitching, and Percy holding her tight in response. Once Thalia had found them, they eventually retraced their footsteps back up to the surface. Looking towards the ziggurat, they discovered that though they were still a ways away from the pyramid, they had crossed the savanna and now only had to cross a sliver of desert before reaching the edge of the rainforest. They set up camp, and waited through the night, taking turns to watch out for enemies- Mutts, and otherwise. The next morning, they immediately set off for the jungle. The desert, such as it was, was boringly uneventful (about as boring as it could get in the middle of a live gladiatorial competition). In the jungle, however, all of that changed. Lizard-headed hybrids attacked at any hour, hissing and screeching. Jaguars were common stance, stalking the group day and night, and attacking at the most inconvenient moments. Percy, in the middle of peeing into a bush, was surprised by two jaguars at the same time, one attacking from either side. Percy would have died, had he not turned inadvertently when the first jaguar sprang into sight. Covered in Percy's piss, the jaguar ran off with an uncharacteristic _squeak. _Percy then dispatched of the jaguar with ease, by waving his sword around erratically and yelling loudly.

After the jaguar problem had been solved, they continued their journey towards the ziggurat, fighting off monsters and mosquitoes both. Finally, a few days later, they reached the base of the massive structure that they had been heading towards.

However, though they had gotten away from the natural dangers of the jungle behind them, they had yet to confront the human dangers of their enemies ahead. In fact, had Thalia not noticed a plume of smoke about 200 meters northwest, those Hunger Games might have been over a lot sooner than expected. Percy immediately recommended that they all go up to the top of the ziggurat and set up camp there. Once everyone had thought it out, they all agreed that that was their best option. They began the ascent immediately that morning, not willing to risk being so close to the Careers. At around midday, they reached the top of the pyramid with all of their packs and supplies. As Annabeth and Thalia began to set up camp, they gave Percy guard duty. As Percy wandered around the top of the pyramid, he saw that there was one part of the floor that was less weather beaten than the rest of the pyramid. Percy knelt down to give the surface a closer look. As his finger played around the edge of one of the bricks, he found a catch hidden in the floor. His natural curiosity overrode his sense of caution, he heaved upwards with all his might. With an incongruently metallic _CLANG,_ the floor opened up, revealing a trapdoor concealed in the ground. Percy did the sensible thing, and slid into the opening without telling his friends.

Inside, it was dark, and humid as well. There was also a particularly… _reptilian _smell in the air. Percy set the smell aside and began to explore the temple interior. As he walked through the corridors, he switched on his goggles… and immediately stumbled back when he realized that there was a mastiff-sized life-form around 5 meters in front of him. Had Percy continued walking, he probably would have walked into it.

"Crap," muttered Percy, and he drew his regular sword in preparation for the fight. The creature lunged forward in an attempt to catch Percy off-guard, woefully unaware that Percy had already detected its presence. Percy swung his sword in a decapitating arc in front of him, and felt the blade slice through flesh. Although Percy never really enjoyed battle, he took a guilty pleasure this time at knowing that he was superior to his opponent. Immediately after that, he side-stepped away from the barreling creature, not wanting it to crash into him, be it dead or alive. The creature came to a stop underneath the light of the opening, and Percy saw… a dog. It was not what Percy was expecting, so much that he stumbled a few steps. However, upon closer inspection, the "dog" was actually a Mutt. Its fur had been grouped in spikes that were very sharp to the touch, and on the edge of his tail, there was a human hand attached, still wriggling in its death throes. Percy looked around, and something hit him all of a sudden- he had been in this pyramid for about 2 minutes, and something had already attacked him.

"Well, that must mean…" Percy muttered to himself. _That must mean that the entire pyramid is infested with mutts!_ Suddenly, Percy felt claustrophobic, his ADHD-pumped brain seeing booby traps around every corner, exotic but deadly mutts lurking in every shadow, and hidden trapdoors that only lead you deeper into the trap… Percy shook himself, and half stumbled, half sprinted towards the exit. As soon as he emerged, he closed the trapdoor immediately, and, for good measure, stomped on it a few times. Annabeth and Thalia, who were still deep in discussion, stopped to look at Percy in bemusement.

"Percy?" Annabeth spoke uncertainly. "You look like you've seen a ghost, or something. What happened?"

It took a while for Percy to explain the entire sequence of events, and his theory about the pyramid, but by the end of his tale, he had finished. Annabeth and Thalia were looking at the floor with a scared uncertainty, as though looking for something that would tell them: _Lots of scary man-eating monsters here!_ Percy, personally, thought it was hopeless. Their plan was shot to pieces; it depended upon the trio being able to make their escape undetected into the pyramid, regrouping at the top, and then leaving, having struck a deadly blow. But now, with all of the monsters around, there would be a high risk of being ambushed by a mutt, or a group of mutts. Percy stared at the floor, wondering what in the world was going to happen.

But then, the seeds of an idea struck him, and a slow grin spread itself across his mouth.


	19. Chapter 19- Sorry, guys

**So guys, I really regret not having published for some time, but I've realized something now that I've known for some time now. I don't want to write this fanfic anymore. I know that I've poured a massive amount of effort into this, but I don't think I can make the effort anymore. I've lost my fervor for both PJatO and HG, and it would be against my interests to continue to do this. However, I do think that you all deserve to know how my story ends. It will be conveyed in numerical order.**

The gang enters the ziggurat pyramid, and begins the long, grueling task of clearing the top two floors of monsters.

As they begin the 3rd floor, they discover an entrance to the outside world, which (of course) leads to the Career camp.

They decide to try and eliminate the Careers by leading them into the labyrinth.

However, as they draw them in, the Gamemakers release a huge feathered serpent into the labyrinth, preventing the gang from pulling off their ambush. The Careers, now down to 4, have been temporarily defeated.

As the gang goes to sleep, the Careers ambush them atop the pyramid. In a act of cruelty, they place Percy in a situation that could potentially kill him, and then leave the area as quickly as possible. They make a bet- if he dies, the girls will be summarily executed. If he leaves, then he will have to hunt him down as they lead him on a merry chase around the arena.

Percy, predictably, escapes, and (with the help of sponsors, because, you know, Romance and stuff), starts to track the Careers. He enlists the help of his 3 surviving 7 & 12 buddies, only to wake up one morning to discover that they have been bloodily savaged by mutts overnight. At one point, they split, and Percy goes after one set of Careers. When he catches up, he kills the two careers (Guy from 1 and the other person- whoever the hell's left behind) and rescues Thalia. After they recover and resupply, they go after Annabeth

After some effort, they find Annabeth, and the guy and girl from 2. In the battle, as Thalia and Percy battle with the guy, Serena escapes from the fray, with Annabeth. As Percy hesitates after who he should go after, the guy from 2 deals Thalia a fatal blow to the stomach. Percy, in a black rage, slays the man effortlessly. Thalia, with her dying words, confesses to Percy all of her secrets for posterity, and finally reveals to Percy that the Cannons are in the Arena- you just have to look for them. She then reveals to Percy that her cannon is nearby, and if he wants, she will sacrifice herself to save Annabeth.

Percy then tracks down Serena to a canyon, where there is an outcropping of rock that leads to a sudden cliff. Serena challenges Percy to a duel, and releases Annabeth nearby. Serena prepares to fight when suddenly Thalia appears, holding herself together through willpower.

Thalia falls over the cliff to her doom, and as she dies, the outcropping reveals a high tech cannon that blasts Serena to smithereens because of Thalia's self-sacrifice.

As Annabeth and Percy trek through the wilderness, trying to stay alive, with Percy healing Annabeth's wounds slowly, they are attacked by the quasi-insane girl from 5, who accuses them of killing her District partner (who you remember, set out to find them, only to be killed by Careers). Annabeth is stabbed in the stomach, and Percy, in grief, shows her District partners token to the girl. The girl snaps, and goes off into the wilderness, and dies soon after- whether out of grief or suicide or simply a wild animal, we don't know.

Annabeth dies in Percy's arms, and she reminds him that if he truly loves her, he will stay true to Thalia and her memory, and be true to himself. Do not be corrupted by the Capitol. As Percy promises such, she dies in his arms, and he is proclaimed the Victor of the Hunger Games.

Of course, none of the characters are dead, since time travel means that they are alive in the past, and aware of the fact that they supposedly died.

As the ceremony finishes and Poseidon leads Percy back to the past, we see a mysterious young man in the streets of an unknown city musing on the benefits of Romance in the Hunger Games. The young man, as he approaches a bakery, silently decides that he will do the same, on the very slim chance that he is selected for the Games.

This, of course, is none other than Peeta Mellark, who we then see after all of the 3 books in the series, silently blessing Percy for being the Pathblazer for the rebellion which has done so much for the world.


End file.
